


Marauder meet the Company, Company meet Hogwarts - Or a Good chunk of it

by lindajenner



Series: The Aftermath of Hogwarts... and What Happpens next. [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Dimension Travel, F/M, M/M, The Veil (DoM)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:40:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 128,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22485742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindajenner/pseuds/lindajenner
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, the charges against Harry don't just go away because he killed Voldemort.He's found guilty and is sent through the Veil.But this isn't his world. And he's all alone...Or is he?
Series: The Aftermath of Hogwarts... and What Happpens next. [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555228
Comments: 457
Kudos: 706
Collections: Fav_Hobbit





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ...^^^^---WARNING WARNING WARNING---^^^...  
> This requires the 'The Trial of Harry Potter' as a prologue.  
> And yes, almost all the stories in this series, bar the above mentioned 'Trial' have almost identical first chapters. ALMOST but not quite, there are minor variations to support the direction that each story is going. Skip the first chapter and you'll miss all the hints.

_“Thank you, Mr Potter.” He took the parchment the clerk was patiently holding. “The Wizengamot will confer and inform you of our decision.”_

_Fifteen minutes later Harry was holding his breath and Hermione’s hand. Would the five members of the Wizengamot agree to his requests? Would he get what wanted?_

_“The sitting members of the Wizengamot have reached a consensus…”_

Lucius Malfoy looked at Harry from his seat in the Wizengamot members’ benches. For the first time, Harry saw a Malfoy that was not pleased with his own actions.

“We regret that we are unable to meet all of your requests, Mr Potter.” He sighed. “A lot, certainly, but not all. As far as your requests in relation to Life in Exile? Point One. Your muggle identity and altering it are a minor issue. Nominating only one person to be aware of your muggle identity, we believe not to be a wise idea, however there are ways to lock that information away in a person’s mind that is only released upon your chosen information holder’s death. Point Two. Altering your appearance. Miss Granger’s suggestions are feasible, both of them. We do understand your reasoning and to a point, we agree with it. We don’t like it, but we do understand it. Point Three. We have conferred with St. Mungo's and the only option available to you is sterilisation, be it temporary, linked to your core binding or permanent. There are no other alternatives, I’m afraid. Point Four. Your finances. That’s a little more complex. Gringotts have informed us that the Potter Family Charter states that no more than ten percent of the gross estate value may be transferred to the muggle world, however that is still a respectable amount. But the Black Family Charter stipulates that no monies from any of the Black Estates may be transferred into muggle control. Your personal possessions? Professor Flitwick believes that he can cast a charm that will enable you to see and value a trunk, but have no curiosity or desire to open it, until or if the bindings are lifted. Point Five. You are an adult of legal age and as such have the right to disperse your assets where you choose. If you write a Will, we will see that it is apportioned as per your wishes.” He held out a fresh sheet of parchment. “Here are the agreed upon requests for the Exile option.”

Harry waited while the clerk fetched the parchment and handed it to Hermione.

“As for the Veil option? A wand. Mr Potter, a conviction under Mordred’s Law prohibits this Ministry from providing you a wand, at least until your sentence is complete.” Malfoy paused. “To clarify… If you were to select the Exile option and at some point, in the future, you were called upon to assist with a situation that required the bindings one your core being lifted, that would constitute the completion of your sentence.”

“Thank you for adding that, Mr Malfoy. That hadn’t been covered.” Kingsley commented.

“Understandable and I apologise for not mentioning it earlier. But we digress. A wand. We have to deny this request, not because we wish to, but because it is the law. Point Two. The mokeskin pouch. Yes, certainly we shall return it to you. Point Three. Unfortunately, the only option that allows you to retain any finances is the Exile option. This is a grey area, if you choose the veil, you will no longer be a citizen of our world and the only legal equivalent is death, and as such we suggest that you write a Will to come into effect upon your entrance into the veil. However, we do understand your hypothesis and while the Wizengamot cannot provide you with monies, there is no such restriction on your advisors. If Miss Granger, Auror Shacklebolt or Unspeakable Croaker were to gift you with items or monies, we do not have the right to deny your acceptance of said gifts, but it can only be what they carry on their person at any given time.”

“Understood.” Kingsley spoke and Harry and Hermione both nodded.

“Point Four. Battle robes. This court must provide you with clothing, but there’s no way we can approve dragonhide, it’s way over budget. Not to mention that Mordred’s Law specifically stipulates the items we can and must provide. Three pair of cotton canvas trousers, three cotton button-down shirts, three cotton undershirts, six pairs underpants, six pairs socks, one pair cow-leather shoes or boots, one wool knitted jumper/pullover, one change of sleepwear.”

“Damn.” Harry whispered.

“Point five. The trunk. While Miss Granger holds your complete trust, Mordred’s Law again inhibits us, in what can be provided to you. A trunk and its contents are not on that list, I’m afraid. The best we can do is to provide a muggle bag of Miss Granger’s choosing.”

“Double damn.” Harry muttered and fell back in his seat in re.

“However…” Malfoy held up a hand. “Having said all that… There is an even **_older_** law, one of the first that Merlin laid down, that basically states that no witch or wizard shall be denied the right to bear arms, nor shall they be dictated to, in what they wish to spend their own money on.”

“We, who sit here, have determined that we should be abiding by this older law.” Lady Longbottom added. “As it supersedes Mordred’s Law, we are going to **_add_** this to your situation.”

“What this means for you, Mr Potter?” Malfoy began, “is that, while the Wizengamot cannot provide these items, we will not deny you from providing them for yourself.”

“To that end, we believe that you should be given sufficient time to acquire those items. As such, your sentence will come into effect on the 3rd of-” Lady Longbottom began.

“Please!” Harry stood quickly. “My godfather went into the veil very early in the morning on the 18th of June. Is it possible for me to do the same? It will be the two-year anniversary.” He finished on a whisper.

The five members of the Wizengamot conferred, Lady Longbottom and Malfoy speaking quickly behind a hastily erected privacy barrier. Finally, the other three members nodded, Lady Longbottom smiled, and Malfoy sighed.

“Very well, Mr Potter. We will contact the Department of Mysteries and request a more exact time but for now we agree. Your sentence will be carried out on the 18th of June 1998, between midnight and dawn.” Lady Longbottom said.

“So, it comes down to which sentence you would prefer. Mr Potter we would remand you to the DMLE holding cells each night. We are bending a number of laws to do so, but you will be permitted to leave the DMLE holding cells and the Ministry each day, but we can only allow you a maximum of four hours, per day, outside the cells and you must be accompanied at all times by a senior Auror.” Malfoy straightened his shoulders. “May I suggest that Gringotts be your first priority, knowing what you have in available funds, may change what you purchase or at least, the priority that you rank your purchases by.”

Lady Longbottom turned to Hermione. “Mr Potter? As stated, you will be permitted to leave the DMLE with an Auror escort. Please understand that this escort is to stay within sight of you at all times, when you are outside the Ministry. You will be given one of a pair of protective custody cuffs, with your escort wearing the other. These will stop you from getting further from your escort than six feet and if such were to happen, you would be automatically portkeyed back to the DMLE and your privileges revoked, unless the circumstances were outside of you control, of course. The other thing that we feel needs to be said is that we believe that, until your sentence is to be enacted, that you take a temporary sterility potion.”

Hermione looked alarmed at this. “May we ask why, ma'am?”

“Mr Potter’s status in our world, Miss Granger. We understand that in the past there have been thwarted attempts to potion Mr Potter with love or lust potions.” Lady Longbottom said.

Malfoy explained further. “We believe that once Mr Potter’s sentence becomes public, that many young witches, and some **_not_** so young witches, may try this again. Their reasons will vary, some will be after the publicity, some the gold, some the souvenir, some the challenge. But to do so, is rape and we will not condone that. We recommend a sterility potion and charm and to announce it as though it were a part of your sentence.”

“Thank you, sir.” Harry sighed. “That would be good. I don’t like fangirls.”

Malfoy smothered his amusement and asked. “Mr Potter? Have you reached a decision, or would you like a few minutes to discuss the matter with your advisors?”

“I’d like five minutes to discuss it, sir.” Harry answered.

“Granted. Auror Shacklebolt may place a silencing ward around you and your advisors.” Malfoy nodded.

“Thank you, sir.” Harry nodded back.

Kingsley tossed up a privacy ward and Hermione instantly began to rant.

Until Kingsley silenced her.

“Thanks, Kingsley. Mione, shut up and listen. Logically, we knew we weren’t going to just walk away, too much has happened. This isn’t as good as you might have wanted but it’s better than I expected. Hell, I expected ‘go straight to Azkaban, do not pass GO, do not collect ʛ200’. This is better.”

“Better? How the hell do you figure that?” Kingsley demanded.

“Okay, Life in Exile might be hell on earth to you or other magicals, Kingsley, but not to me. Magic is cool, but I’ve had to live without it every summer, I can keep going if I have to. It might be different if I were older or been living in the magical world fulltime, able to do magic anytime I wanted, but that hasn’t been the case. Since August, Hermione, Ron and I have been on the run, we used magic rarely, we weren’t sure if the Ministry… under Voldy’s control… could track our magical signatures.”

“Only if their signature is on record. The closest is if someone splinches, we can use their signature to collect whatever parts they misplaced.” Croaker answered.

“Good to know.” Harry snorted.

“So, you’re not concerned about living in the muggle world permanently?” Kingsley asked.

“No, not really. But… That’s not the option I’m choosing.” Harry words made the three gasp, in shock.

“What?” Hermione overrode Kingsley’s silencing hex.

“Hermione, you read the same book, about the veil, that I did.” Harry chided.

“What am I missing, then?” She asked.

“Did you see the piece of parchment that was glued into the book’s rear cover?”

“Yes, it was just scribble, Harry, I think it was a child’s attempt at writing Cyrillic.”

“And **_I_** know it was parselscript. Anyway, it said that the Veil isn’t the Veil of Death, like the Ministry think, but rather that it’s the Veil of Judgement. If I step into the Veil, Lady Magic will judge me. If she finds my actions and motives immoral or unjust, I’ll be sent somewhere to pay for it, purgatory, if you like. If, however, she finds me deserving of it, I’ll go somewhere I can earn the right to live in peace.” Harry didn’t say that if Lady Magic found him righteous in his actions, he would merely be transported to a different place and his life recreated afresh. His core wiped clean of any taints, his magic fresh and new. A gift of Lady Magic, herself.

“Oh…” Hermione gasped.

“The wizarding world, as a whole, hasn’t been good to me, Mione, I can **_easily_** live without it. Magic? Not so easily. The only good things this world has given me, are my friends. Life in Exile means losing those friends. Same with the Veil. But with the Veil? At least with the Veil, I will still remember you. I’ll have my album, I’ll be able to see you, or pictures of you. Exile? With the memory charms, it’ll be like you never existed to me. I can’t, I **_won’t_** accept that.”

“So, you’re choosing the Veil?” Hermione whispered.

“I am.” He nodded.”

“Oh, Harry.” She whispered and a tear ran down her cheek.

“You need to be strong, Mione. Go get your parents back. Live, be happy. For me? Please?” Harry let his own tears fall. “Even if the Wizengamot cleared me, I wouldn’t be staying in the wizarding world, I can’t, not after the way they’ve treated me for the last seven years. I can’t.”

“What if another Dark Lord comes?” Hermione pleaded.

“I risked my life for them every year, Hermione, and not once did anyone other than you or the Weasley’s ever say thanks, not one person. I died for them and do your really think any of them are going to say thanks, maybe, but if another Dark Lord came, they’d expect me to die for them again. No, once was enough. It’s time I lived for me, not the wizarding world.” Harry begged his friend to understand.

“I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. Alright. What can I do to help?”

“Help me get my stuff together and put up a trunk?”

“You got it.”

“Thanks. Kingsley, I’m ready.” Harry nodded towards Malfoy and the other members of the Wizengamot.

Kingsley didn’t say anything, he just flicked his wand and let his privacy wards fall.

“I’ve made my choice, Mr Malfoy.” Harry said, once he had the wizard’s attention.

“And which sentence have you decided upon, Mr Potter?” The blonde wizard asked.

“I choose the veil.”


	2. Chapter 2

_“Help me get my stuff together and put up a trunk?”_

_“You got it.”_

_“Thanks. Kingsley, I’m ready.” Harry nodded towards Malfoy and the other members of the Wizengamot._

_Kingsley didn’t say anything, he just flicked his wand and let his privacy wards fall._

_“I’ve made my choice, Mr Malfoy.” Harry said, once he had the wizard’s attention._

_“And which sentence have you decided upon, Mr Potter?” The blonde wizard asked._

_“I choose the veil.”_

Malfoy blinked at Harry’s choice but nodded. “Very well. We have conferred with Auror Robards, who is the senior-most of the surviving Aurors and he has suggested that for the first few days you have, not one but two escorts. The threat of retaliation is… possible. Not likely, but possible. He has assigned Aurors Shacklebolt and Williams, for the moment.”

“Thank you, sir.” Harry sighed in relief, at least he knew one of his jailors.

Malfoy nodded and continued. “As it is getting late in the day, we suggest that a representative from Gringotts is requested to attend you here in the Ministry, to discuss your finances. And then that you been seen by a healer. If the healer recommends time in St. Mungo's, we may amend your custodial location to include the hospital. For now? Auror Shacklebolt, please escort Mr Potter to a public interview room to await a Gringotts representative.”

Hermione and Harry politely thanked Malfoy and the other members and tiredly followed Kingsley through the nearly deserted Ministry to a simple room that was furnished with a table, chairs, a sofa and writing desk. The two younger people slumped down onto the sofa, leaning against each other.

“That wasn’t as bad as I feared.” Kingsley sighed. “But not as good as I’d hoped.”

“A hell of a lot better than I expected.” Harry muttered.

“While we wait, lets run through your list and try and flesh it out.” Kingsley opened the desk and drew out parchment and a pencil. “What was first?”

“A wand.” Harry answered.

“That’s going to be difficult. With Ollivander missing, your op-”

“No, he’s not. He’s at Bill and Fleur’s cottage.” Hermione interrupted.

“We got him out. Him, Luna and a goblin.” Harry added.

“Oh, well that helps. I’ll get in contact with Bill and see if Ollivander is up to making you a wand.” Kingsley made a note.

“Wands…” Harry corrected.

“Sorry…?”

“Wands.” Harry said again. “I’d like to get a couple, I may never get anywhere to get a replacement, so it’s a good idea to have some back-ups.”

“But your wand had a phoenix feather core, Harry. Do you know how hard it is to fine phoenix feathers?” Hermione argued.

“It’s hard, but… I do know a phoenix, Hermione. If I ask nicely, Fawkes may help me out.”

“It’s worth a try.” Kingsley nodded and made another note. “Next?" 

“My mokeskin pouch. Malfoy already said they’d give that back.”

Kingsley nodded. “I’ll get that from Robards, in the morning.”

“My vault. Well, we have to wait on Gringotts for more information on that.”

Kingsley nodded and wrote a few more words.“Battle robes.” Harry said.

“Not just battle robes, but clothes in general. You only have two changes of clothes, Harry, and you’re wearing one, right now.” Hermione added.

Harry sighed. “Yeah, I know, but…”

“But we didn’t exactly have the freedom to have a glorious shopping trip.” Hermione nodded.

Kingsley said nothing but wrote a few more words down and looked at them in question.

“Last was a trunk containing anything Hermione thinks I may need.” Harry tried to grin. “I was thinking something along the lines of Moody’s trunk with all the compartments.”

“I could work with that.” Hermione nodded, already thinking.

“You could.” Kingsley nodded, again. “Or… you could go with something a little different.”

“In what way?” Hermione asked.

“I meant pocket-spaces.”

“Pocket-spaces?” Hermione asked. “I’ve never heard of pocket-spaces.”

“I’m not sure that they’re actually called pocket-spaces, though. They’re a created space, similar to a wizarding tent or an expanded trunk, but they can be on a significantly larger scale. You could have an expanded trunk that has a number of created-spaces, one for a bathroom, a library, a bedroom, a potions lab. Anything you wanted.” Kingsley replied.

“Outdoor spaces?” Hermione asked.

“As far as I’m aware. Croaker would be the best one to talk to about them.” Kingsley warned.

“I’ll talk to h-” Hermione cut herself off mid-word when someone knocked at the door.

“Come.” Kingsley spoke for them.

The door opened and a wizard wearing Aurors’ robes poked his head in. “Shack, I’ve got the rep from Gringotts, here. You ready for them?”

“Yes, thank, Williams, send them in. Oh, and have you met Harry and Hermione, yet?”

Williams gestured to someone standing in the hallway and a goblin walked forward. It entered the room and crossed to stand beside the table.

“No, not yet, but that can wait until later, Shack, I’ve got to track down a healer and he’s got enough in his cauldron to worry about., I’ll be back soon enough.” Williams withdrew and closed the door.

Shacklebolt turned to the goblin. “Welcome and thank you for coming. I am Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and these are Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Harry Potter. Have you been briefed on the situation?”

“I am Rocksplitter.” The goblin looked at each of them. “And yes, I have. Lucius Malfoy and Augusta Longbottom both sighed the briefing and request for Gringotts’ attendance.”

“Good. What does Gringotts recommend?” Kingsley asked.

“Given the circumstances… I’d recommend both an inheritance test and a proprietary test.” Rocksplitter said.

“I understand having an inheritance test, but why a proprietary test?” Harry asked.

“Mr Potter, you were not a part of the wizarding world, between that fateful night and your return for Hogwarts. Many people left bequests to you, money, gold, gems, jewellery, property to name but a few. However… Albus Dumbledore was your magical guardian. Do you know what he claimed on your behalf? I don’t. A proprietary test will tell us all items, monies and properties that carry your name as owner.”

“You think that Dumbledore-” Hermione started.

“I don’t.” Rocksplitter shook his head. “But without a proprietary test, we have no way of knowing, for certain.”

“Do it.” Harry sighed. “Dumbledore’s made some choices that I don’t agree with, he might have made more that he didn’t tell me about, but until I know…?”

“Exactly, Mr Potter.” The goblin pulled out two shallow boxes. Each were opened and a phial of ink removed from each one. “Seven drops of blood in each one, if you please?”

Harry held out a hand and Hermione tapped it with her wand, creating a small cut that bled freely. Once each phial had received the requisite amount of blood, they were handed back to the goblin, who gave them a shake and poured all of one phial and most of the second, over a sheaf of parchment that lay inside each box, one phial per box.

“As soon as we’ve confirmed your identity, I’ll summon the records for your vaults, and we can assess them.” Rocksplitter said.

“Vaults? As in… more than one?” Harry asked.

“Definitely more than one. Your trust vault, of course, that should have transferred over to become a personal vault when you turned seventeen. There should also be your father’s personal vault, your mother’s personal vault, the Potter family vault, a bequest vault, your godfather’s personal vault and depending on what his, as yet unread, Will says, perhaps also the Black family vault.”

“Oh, hell…” Harry whispered. “What else didn’t Dumbledore tell me and why?”

Rocksplitter lifted a sheet clear of one box. “Ah, as I thought.” He laid the parchment where Harry could see it.

**_Harold James Sirius Potter-Black. (31 July 1980 -)_ **

**_Mother_ ** _– Lillian Jasmine Evans (30 Jan 1960 – 31 Oct 1980)_

 **_Father_ ** _– James Fleamont Potter (27 Mar 1960 – 31 Oct 1980) (blood)_

 **_Father_ ** _– Sirius Orion Black (3 nov 1959 – 18 Jun 1996) (blood adopted)_

After that were a list of things. ʛalleon amounts, addresses and vault numbers. The list filled the page and went onto the next and the two that followed it.

“Oh, my…” Hermione gasped.

“Harold?” Harry screwed his nose up.

“Now, let’s see to the proprietary listing, shall we?” Rocksplitter lifted a sheet from the second box. “Hmm… Not much there.” He handed the sheet to Harry.

“The Marauders’ Map and a Spudmore Firebolt serial number E1039A. Huh, not much of… oh, personally claimed. Huh. So, what about the- Ah, here we go, guardian claimed. What the…? The Peverell pensieve? The Potter invisibility cloak. The Potter library. Trust vault and key. Number four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. I own the house in Surrey? Really? So much for Vernon’s rants, about me taking up their space.” Harry muttered.

“That’s not a lot, Harry.” Hermione added.

“No.” Rocksplitter agreed. “But I wouldn’t have expected Dumbledore to have taken even that amount.” He frowned. “I wonder why?”

But Harry knew why. The vault key was obvious, as was the house. And Dumbledore needed the library to hunt down information on horcruxes and he would have needed the pensieve to view and re-view memories, to ensure he hadn’t missed anything. The cloak was interesting, after all, he’d said that James had left it with him, prior to his death, but he’d handed that over to Harry quite early, so it wasn’t really that much of an issue.

“I was kind of aware of these, not necessarily that they were mine, but I did know that he had them and why. They were necessary to fight the war.” Harry said.

“As long as you are aware of them. Do you wish to do a recall of the items?” Rocksplitter asked.

“Do I have to do it now, or can I do that in a week or two?” Harry countered.

“As I understand it, you have forty-six days until your sentence is enacted, so as long as we have sufficient time to retrieve the items, it can wait. I suggest that having your finances resolved by the 10th of June, would be advisable.”

“I can do that.” Harry nodded. “How do I go about claiming things left to me?”

“Ah, that is quite simple.” Rocksplitter placed a spun-glass quill into the phial of ink that held Harry’s blood and laid two small books in front of him. “If you’ll notice, at the beginning of each bequest there is a small circular symbol. To claim a bequest, simply touch the quill to the symbol at the beginning of that line.” Rocksplitter pointed to the books. “These are client portfolios. If we add your inheritance test to a portfolio, it will then give you far more details on each bequest and you’ll be able to study them at your leisure. The same with the proprietary test, although that does also provide a record of transaction on the various vaults. If you wished to consolidate any vaults? You would use the proprietary portfolio and in the vault listing, at the beginning of the book, you would tap a vault number with your finger or a quill and drag it to the vault that you want to merge it with. Whichever has the lesser contents will be moved into the other. Any changes you make in your portfolios are echoed on your vault ledger at Gringotts.” Rocksplitter added the two tests to the folios and watched as they merged with the document folder.

“That’s handy.” Harry nodded to Hermione. “What about allowing someone else access to my vaults or removing their access?”

“Ah. In the proprietary folio, you tap a vault number, like so.” Rocksplitter demonstrated as he explained. “As you can see, when you turn the page from the vault listing, you will find a detailed description of the vault and it’s contents. Here.” He pointed at a key symbol at the top of the page, beside the vault number. “This will tell you how many keys there are for the vault and who has them. This vault has two keys, one is currently held by Miss Hermione Granger and the second is held by Gringotts, which means that it is actually inside this vault. This symbol?” Rocksplitter pointed at a pictograph that showed three people, just the head and shoulders, one in front and two behind. “Tap this and a listing will appear of all those authorised to access this vault, without a key. As you can see, there is only one name. Harold James Potter.”

“How do I add someone?”

“Open that sub-listing and tap the quill against the ‘+’ symbol, write the person’s name in and seal it with a pulse of your magic. If you’re not authorised to add someone, the ink used to write that person’s name will bleed into a single blot. The named person will have to provide some type of identification, before they access the vault, usually that is an identity test with their magical signature linked to the test, or the key to their own vault.”

“Right, let’s get Hermione on there.” Harry pulled the book towards him and began to add Hermione’s name. “She already has my key, so she can use that to access my vault, for the moment. Can she use that to purchase things for me? And what about if someone lifts my key from Hermione? Can I stop them from accessing the vault?”

“Of course. Here.” Rocksplitter walked him through blocking anyone but he or Hermione from accessing his vaults with or without a key. “Excellent. I would suggest that you take a day to familiarise yourself with your vaults and transfer funds to where you want them. Then when you know what you want, contact us again and Gringotts will do what we can to facilitate your requests.” Rocksplitter didn’t wait for a response, instead he packed away his things, tucked the glass quill into the inheritance portfolio and pushed it towards Harry, along with the proprietary folio. He stood and gave them a formal head bow.

“Thank you, Master Rocksplitter.” Kingsley stood and escorted the goblin to the door. “Ah, Klipson, are you here to escort Master Rocksplitter?”

Two trainees in the shorter version of the Aurors trench-coat-style robes, jumped to their feet and nodded. “Yes, sir. Director Robards has assigned me, Laurence and Timberly to be runners for you, Mr Potter and Miss Granger, sir.” One of them said.

“Right, fair enough. Who’s on right now?”

“Timberly and I, sir.” Klipson answered. “I’m on until six and Timberly’s here until morning, sir. Laurence will take over at eight am and I’ll be back at four pm.”

“That's fine. One of you escort Master Rocksplitter to the atrium and the public floo’s and see if you can find out how Williams is going with that healer for Harry, we have no idea of his injuries other than they aren’t likely to be fatal, and the other see to some food and ask Croaker to join us.”

“Yessir!” The two spoke together.

Back in the interview room, Kingsley fell into a seat. “Gods, I’m tired.” He sighed.

“ ** _You’re_** tired?” Harry snorted. “Try being hit with a Killing Curse and dying. Then fight a duel immediately afterwards. I hurt, Kingsley, everything from my feet to my hair, hurts.”

“Urgh…” Kingsley added a note to his list. “You need to see that healer. Someone needs to tell McGonagall what’s happening, she’s not going to like this.”

A tap at the door revealed the Unspeakable Croaker.

“You wanted to see me?” He(?) said. Hermione was't sure if the Unspeakable was male or female, their voice gave nothing away and the heavily sheilded hood of their robes, didn't help. For now, Hermione was going to assume that Croaker was a wizard, not a witch.

“Yes.” Kingsley waved him in. “I was hoping you could explain a little more to Harry and Hermione about pocket-spaces.”

“Pocket-spaces?”

“Yeah, Harry’s asked Hermione to put together a trunk that contains everything he needs, right?”

“Right…?” Croaker tilted his head.

“Harry was thinking of a trunk like Moody’s. But me? Well, I was thinking that maybe that trunk could be more like a single large room with a number of pocket-spaces opening off of it. So, if you could explain them to Hermione, that would be great.” Kingsley sat back.

“Now I understand.” Croaker nodded, amusement leaching through his voice. “Alright, pocket-spaces, wizard-spaces, created-spaces, pocket dimensions, whatever you wish to call them. They have no official designation and never will, not if the DoM can avoid it. You take a door frame, whether it has a door that can close is personal preference. A selection of runes are etched into the frame and activated. That creates a tear in time and space that, for lack of a better term, blows a bubble the shape and size that is dictated by the runes. Thy are not considered a part of an external structure as they are portable. They can be almost any size and contain almost any environment.”

“How do I get my hands on some?” Hermione sat forward.

“Normally… you wouldn’t. They’re DoM use only, how Shacklebolt knew about them, I don’t know.” The Unspeakable looked at Kingsley.

“My wife worked with you, until her death.” Kingsley sighed.

“Ah… My condolences.”

“So, if they’re DoM restricted, how do I include them in a trunk for Harry?” Hermione demanded.

“You tell me what you need, and I help you make them up.” Croaker shrugged.

“Well, he’s-”

“Stop.” Croaker held up a hand. “Take a few days, get a list together, then come see me. It’s pointless jumping in without knowing exactly what you need. You’d only have to come again and again. Let’s avoid that if we can.”

Hermione huffed, but a knock at the door came before she could do more.

“Come.” Kingsley called and the door opened to show one of the trainees and a wizard in healer’s robes.

“Sir? Healer Bernard Lincoln, as requested.” The young witch trainee reported.

“Thank you, Klipson. Healer Lincoln, please come in.” Kingsley gestured and the healer entered the room. “Thank you for coming. Mr Potter and Miss Granger were both involved in the fight at Hogwarts and neither has been seen by a healer yet. We’d much appreciate you attending to them.”

“Certainly. Who first?”

“Hermione.”

“Harry.”

Harry and Hermione spoke together.

“Hermione goes first.” Harry held up a hand. “She needs to go back to Hogwarts and tell people what happened. I’ll be staying here, so there’s no rush.”

Hermione huffed but nodded. “Alright, but I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it, Mione, you only have do it.” Harry replied bluntly, which earned him another huff.

Another knock and the door opened, this time it was the Auror, Williams, again.

“Hey. I’m back.” Williams flopped gracelessly into a chair. “Shack, get out of here. I’m here until midday tomorrow, do what you need to and get some sleep.” Williams turned from Kingsley to Harry. “Hi. I'm Wilbert Williams, just call me Will. Where are we at and what can I do to help?”


	3. Chapter 3

_Another knock and the door opened, this time it was the Auror, Williams, again._

_“Hey. I’m back.” Williams flopped gracelessly into a chair. “Shack, get out of here. I’m here until midday tomorrow, do what you need to and get some sleep.” Williams turned from Kingsley to Harry. “Hi. I'm Wilbert Williams, just call me Will. Where are we at and what can I do to help?”_

Hermione took a deep breath as she entered the floo. “The Hog’s Head.” She said as she tossed down floo-powder and waited for the world around her to go from green to a darkly lit and run-down pub, before she stepped from the fireplace.

“Granger, isn’t it?” A half familiar voice called.

Hermione spun in that direction her wand at the ready, only to face the man that had helped them the night before.

“Mr Dumbledore.” Hermione lowered her wand. “Is the passage to Hogwarts still available?”

“Nope, but the Floo’s off the Great Hall are. Shacklebolt wanted me to tell you that he’ll be up at the school for the night and you’re to come and find him immediately.” The old man held out a pot of floo powder and nodded to it. “He was quite adamant.”

“Thank you, sir.” Hermione took a handful and stepped back into the fireplace. A few seconds later and the battered doors of the Great Hall were in front of her.

“Hermione!” Ginny’s voice reached her a split second before the redhead skidded to a stop in front of her.

“Ginny.” Hermione replied tiredly.

“Where Harry?” Ginny asked frantically.

“Still at the Ministry.” Hermione answered.

“He should be here with me. Go and get him. I need him.” Ginny ranted.

“I need to speak to Kingsley.” Hermione said and stepped to the side in preparation to go around Ginny.

“I don’t care what you need, I need Harry.”

Something inside Hermione snapped. “Well, you can’t have him, he has to stay in the ministry. Wizengamot orders.” Hermione snarled and Ginny took a frightened step back.

“But… why? He killed You-Know-Who, what more do they want? _I_ _need him_.” The last was said as a whine.

“Yeah, well, Voldemort had control of the Ministry for a year and had Harry declared undesirable number one. That doesn’t just go away in five minutes, or even one day. Just because the bad guy died. That’s more important than your needs.” Hermione huffed.

Ginny went pale. “But… But…”

“Goats butt, Ginevra, get over it.” Hermione spotted Neville sitting on the bottom step of the Grand Staircase and made her way in that direction. “Neville? I need to speak to Kingsley Shacklebolt. Do you know where he is?”

Neville lifted a tired head. “Think he’s up in the hospital, Hermione. McGonagall’s there, anyway, she should be able to tell you.”

“Thanks.” She ignored a gaping Ginny and a waving Ron and headed up the stairs.

The hospital wing doors were closed and refused to open for Hermione’s unlocking charm, so after a few moments, she decided her best course of action was to send a patronus to McGonagall and Kingsley. That done, she leant against the wall opposite the door and waited. Less than a minute passed before the doors cracked open and Kingsley’s head popped out.

“Hermione, you’re here, good. Come in.” Once she was through the doors, he held up a hand for her to wait while he resealed the entrance. “Come on. We need to talk to McGonagall and Pomfrey.”

“Kingsley?”

“I’ll explain, but some of it, you’ll need to see for yourself.” He led her into Pomfrey's office and pointed her to a chair beside McGonagall, before sitting beside the medi-witch.

“What’s going on?” Hermione saw the look of barely held shock on McGonagall’s face.

“There have been some survivors.” Kingsley started.

“Survivors? Oh, that’s good.” Hermione sighed, only to tense when the expressions on the other faces said otherwise. “Isn’t that good?”

“It is, but it creates a huge problem.” Kingsley said.

“In what way?”

“That they survived is great, but what the Ministry will do to them if they’re found, isn’t.” Kingsley said.

“I don’t… I don’t understand.” Hermione tilted her head in confusion.

“Umbridge pushed the anti-creature laws through and that’s where the problem is, at least for some of them.” Hermione just looked at Kingsley, she wasn’t following what he was trying to say. “Hermione they… some of them were attacked by Greyback. We don’t know whether they’ve been turned or not.”

“But it wasn’t the full moon.” Hermione objected.

“No, it wasn’t, unfortunately Greyback doesn’t **_need_** a full moon to infect someone. But in most cases, that’s not the **_only_** problem for them. The muggleborn registry is still in effect. And a big chunk of them are muggleborns. Or at the very least, muggle-raised.”

“Oh, no.” Hermione whispered.

“And there’s the real problem.” Kingsley sighed. “Between the creature laws, some of them will be executed and the muggleborn registry will see others locked up with no medical treatment, we’re in a tight spot.”

“And what do you want me to do about it?” Hermione huffed.

“We want you to hide them.” Pomfrey said.

“How? How am I supposed to hide… how many people? Five? Ten? Twenty? I’m not a bloody miracle worker, Kingsley, no matter what Harry says.” Hermione ranted.

“No, but you’re the one putting a trunk together for him to take with him. We now know, thanks to Moody and Crouch jnr, that people can be enclosed within an expanded trunk, even when it’s locked. And add in a few pocket-spaces and they’d have everything they need.”

“You want me to put people in a trunk and send them with Harry? He won’t like that.” Hermione spluttered.

“I wasn’t planning on telling him until he gets wherever it is, he’s going.” Kingsley said.

“You can’t do that!” Hermione screeched.

“One of them is Remus.” McGonagall whispered.

Hermione froze in shock. “Remus?”

“Remus Lupin.” Pomfrey nodded.

“He survived?”

“He did, but the creature laws… the ministry would be forced to execute him, whether most of them want to or not. Thanks to Umbridge, they have no choice and neither do we. Remus Lupin, Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Natalie McDonald, Katie Bell and Parvati Patil were all savaged by either Greyback or one of his pack.” Kingsley said coldly. “Then there’s the muggleborns. Justin Finch-Fletchley, Dennis Creevey, Colin Creevey and Natalie McDonald. And the muggle-raised, Alicia Spinnet, Lee Jordan, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Euan Abercrombie. Out of both groups only four of them are registered and because they fought here, they broke the registry conditions, the punishment is wand snapping, magic binding and memory removal.”

“Oh, god.”

“And you know very well that Umbridge won’t hesitate to act.” McGonagall added.

“The rest of them? None of them are registered. You know what that means. The only reason they haven’t gone after you, is because of Harry. But the moment he’s through the veil, you’re on borrowed time. They’ll push your history of sedition, as cause to neutralise you, to either bind your core or force a marriage contract on you.” Kingsley said. “It’s happened in the past and I wouldn’t put it passed the purebloods to try it again.”

Hermione shook, she wasn’t sure whether it was rage or fear, but whatever it was, it made her shake.

“And there’s more…” McGonagall whispered.

Hermione couldn't speak, but she looked at her head of house and hoped that the other witch understood what she was asking.

“Severus Snape.” McGonagall whispered.

“He survived.” Pomfrey added. “He’d obviously taken some sort of antivenom, it’s working but slowly.”

“And Fred Weasley.” Kingsley added.

Hermione blinked in shock. “What…? But…? I thought…?”

“Yes, so did we.” Pomfrey agreed. “It wasn’t until later, when I was preparing the bodies for removal, that I realised that some of them were still alive. Badly injured but alive. Fredrick regained consciousness long enough to beg me not to tell the family until I was certain he was going to survive. And I have to agree, given his injuries and her attitude, telling Molly would be a mistake.”

“Oh, hell.”

“Molly’s already been at George, to get him to sign the shop over to Percy. I told him to not make any decisions until the Ministry makes a statement.” Kingsley said. “I implied that they may try and undo anything done before then. I don’t know whether to tell him or not.”

“No.” Hermione sat up straight, things suddenly falling into place in her mind.

“Hermione?” Kingsley blinked, he’d not seen her do this before, but McGonagall and Pomfrey had.

“What is it?” McGonagall asked.

“How did Fred die? I mean, what hit him?” Hermione was not quite sure, but the signs were pointing in one direction.

“It wasn’t a curse or magic. A wall collapsed on him.” Kingsley answered.

“And who was responsible? Do we know?”

Kingsley blinked in thought. “Percy said that Thickness, the Minister, did it, right before Percy blew him out of the window above the greenhouses.”

“Oh.” Hermione nodded, that cinched it. “Yes.”

“Hermione?” McGonagall asked. “What is it?”

“All the pieces of the puzzle. The twins have always been on the outside of the family. Ron resents them, Ginevra’s no better. Percy can’t stand them. And Molly? Seven years I’ve known them, seven years and not once have I seen Molly hug either of the twins. Ron, yes. Ginevra, yes. Percy, yes. Bill, yes. Charlie, yes. But not the twins. She didn’t approve of them leaving school, she didn’t approve of them starting the shop, she didn’t approve of them playing quidditch, she didn’t approve of their friends. If it involved the twins, she didn’t approve.” Hermione spoke quickly. “I think it’s safe to say that Molly doesn’t approve of the twins, in general. And there’s one very simple reason why.”

McGonagall took a deep breath in and let it out as a huge sigh. “She can’t control them.”

“Exactly.” Hermione snapped her fingers and pointed at McGonagall.

“So, how do we keep this under wraps and George’s assets out of Molly’s hand, it’s more than six weeks until Harry’s sentencing?”

“We don’t. Not completely.” Hermione said. “We play the… ‘the Ministry’ monitoring Harry’s assets, due to his not having had a legal magical guardian because Dumbledore had the Potters Wills sealed’, thing. He’s one of the twins’ backers, so their shop is included in that monitoring.”

“Excuse me?” Pomfrey asked. “Isn’t that lying?”

“Nope, Harry’s going to have an Auror escort from now until the veil, they’re to monitor him and make sure that he does nothing to try and get out of his sentence. That includes watching where and how he spends his money. Right?” Hermione asked Kingsley.

“Right.” The Auror nodded.

“Right.” Hermione nodded with him.

“But… How does that… what does that mean for George?” McGonagall said.

“Bring him in as far as the other students are concerned. Don’t tell him about Remus, Fred or Snape. Do tell him about the suspicions about Molly and Percy. Emphasize Ron and Ginevra's opinions of him. See if we can get him to ask to go with them.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Pomfrey asked.

“If, by ten days before Harry’s sentence is carried out, he hasn’t approached one of us to ask, then… I’ll tell him and tell him why we withheld the information.” Hermione said.

“As you sure that’s wise?” McGonagall asked.

“Nope, but if we tell him now? He’s not going to present the right image to Molly and if she finds out? She’ll do anything she can to control them and bluntly, I wouldn’t put it passed her, to use potions on them.” Hermione grimaced.

“Yes, and that would cause a problem.” McGonagall shook her head.

“It would.” Hermione nodded.

“And what about the others?” Pomfrey asked.

“Separate the muggleborns, say you’re hiding them because of the registry. I can approach the muggle-raised and quietly ask them. Publicly, we can say that they’re helping get stuff together for Harry to take with him. That gives them, and me the opportunity to buy things in the muggle world, as well as here in the wizarding world.” Hermione explained.

“Should we be asking the muggleborns, too, do you think?” McGonagall suggested. “Instead of just making the choice for them?”

“It might be a good idea.” Hermione nodded. “And as I’m the one tasked with getting the trunk together, I guess I should be the one to ask them.”

“I agree. They all look up to you and Harry, you doing the asking, will reassure them of your involvement.” Pomfrey nodded.

“But it would also be a good idea to have Kingsley there, just to verify and back me up.” Hermione suggested.

“I’m fine with doing that.” Kingsley nodded.

“And the purebloods?” McGonagall asked.

“Are there any involved?”

“Miss Brown is a pureblood, as is Mr Wood. And if you’re going to involve the Weasley twins, I would recommend talking to William and Charles.” Pomfrey replied.

McGonagall hummed. “And probably a wise idea to speak to Mr Jordan, Miss Johnson and Miss Spinnet, too.”

“And probably Padma, Luna and Neville should be warned.” Hermione huffed.

“Well, that’s for later, right now you should speak to Miss Brown, both Creevey boys, Miss Patil, Miss Bell, Mr Lupin and Professor Snape.” Pomfrey said. “I’ll be sedating them all, shortly, to tend their injuries. Best get it done as quickly as possible.”

“Remus first, then Snape, then Fred. And the students last.” Hermione said.

“Very well.” Pomfrey stood and touched her wand to what appeared to be a decorative carving on the panelling that covered the stone walls. “This way, Miss Granger.”

“The three rooms to the right are Professor Snape, Mr Lupin and Mr Weasley. To the left, the first room are the ladies and the boys are the second room.” Pomfrey pointed from her place at the hidden door in her office. “There is another exit in the Deputy Head’s office, and I would suggest that you use that more than this one. You’ll have more cause to access that office than you will here, on account of flooing to the Ministry and not wanting to disturb Professor Flitwick, who is the new Headmaster, by using his office.” The Medi-witch suggested.

“True. Thank you, Madam Pomfrey.” Hermione gave the witch a smile and turned to Kingsley. “Ready?”

“No, but I’m not the one doing the talking, you are. I’m only back up.” He replied.

“Right.” She took a deep breath and stepped forward. A few more steps and she’d reached Remus’ room. “Does he know that Tonks is…?”

“Yes, he’s been told.”

“Right.” She pushed the door open and stepped into the doorway. Spying the werewolf staring at the ceiling, she spoke. “Remus…? May we come in?”

Remus grunted, but said nothing. Hermione entered the room and crossed to sit in a chair beside the bed.

“Remus, we’ve got a problem.” There was no reaction. “Harry’s been sentenced to the veil.” The werewolf turned to look at her and growled, low and viciously. “Oh, stop that. Harry’s got a plan and we’re going to see that it happens. Are you in?”

“Ted…dy…?” The wizard whispered.

“I’ll go and see Andromeda, myself, and collect him.” Kingsley spoke up.

“Wha’s… pl…an?”

“Harry’s going through the veil, we can’t stop that. But… he’s found documentation that suggests that the veil won’t kill him, but send him somewhere else, a different world. And the Unspeakables have confirmed it. We’re going to put together a trunk with pocket-spaces in it and maybe some tents or some of those ready-built houses. The reason being is that Hogwarts is hiding a number of students. Some were attacked by Greyback and with the Ministry as it is, they’ll be executed if found. Others are muggleborn or raised and are either not on the registry or have broken their registry conditions.” Remus growled again. “We’re going to give them the option of going with Harry. Most of them are now orphans and muggleborn orphans are not good as far as the Ministry and Umbridge are concerned. You’re in much the same situation as them, and Teddy’s worse, he’s the son of a werewolf. He’s never going to get away from that.” Remus drew his lips back from his teeth. “You know damn well, Harry couldn’t care less about that. Right?” Remus gave a tiny nod. “The question is… do you want to go too? Teddy’s not registered yet, hiding him for a few weeks is nothing. Are you in?”

A few seconds passed, but the werewolf nodded.

“Good. You concentrate on getting better and we’ll see to the rest.” Hermione patted Remus knee and stood up.

“I’ll go fetch Teddy when we finish here.” Kingsley said. “I’ll talk to Mrs Tonks about what to tell people, not many knew about Teddy. We might do a few memory charms, I’m not sure yet. Leave it with me, I’ll work it out.”

Remus just dipped his chin and closed his eyes.

Outside the next door, Hermione took a few more deep breaths and sighed. “Here goes nothing.” She lifted a hand and knocked gently on the door.

“Come.” The voice was cracked but clearly still that of the potions Professor.

Hermione opened the door and walked in, stopping at the foot of the bed.

“Gran-ger.” Snape whispered.

“Professor. I’m not going to beat around the bush.” Hermione said, bluntly. “I’m glad you’re alive, but it creates a problem. Everyone thinks you’re dead and if the Ministry or the public find that you’re not? They’re going to want to lynch you.” Snape nodded, resignedly. “Has anyone told you what has happened since the boathouse?” Snape nodded again. “Have they told you what has happened today, at the Ministry?” He shook his head fractionally. “Right. Harry was trialled under Mordred’s Law and convicted. They gave him three choices as far as his sentencing goes. Life Imprisonment, under House Arrest. Life in Exile and Death, via execution or the Veil.” A tear ran down Snape’s cheek. “This is Harry we’re talking about, his luck is just… During our search for the horcruxes he found a refence in some books in the Black library in Grimmauld Place, it said that the veil isn’t the veil of death, it won’t kill him.” Snape began to shake his head, again. “And the Unspeakables confirmed it.” Snape’s eyes widened. “The veil will transport him somewhere else, likely somewhere not on this world. The Unspeakables believe it to be a gateway between dimensions, the dimension being chosen by the magic and belief of the person entering it. Harry believes it will take him somewhere he can live in peace. The Unspeakables’ research indicates that if his belief is strong enough, that’s what will happen.” Snape gave a twitch of the lips, that a person who knew him really well, would call the beginnings of a smile. “And that’s great for him. But… what do we do about those that survived, you included? Well, for most they will just go on with their lives, but for some? That won’t happen. Some of the students were attacked by Greyback and with the Umbridge's creature laws, they’ll be executed the moment the Ministry finds out about them.” Snape bared his teeth in a silent growl. “That’s exactly the same response that Professor Lupin had.” Snape blinked. “Everyone thinks Remus Lupin is dead. Including him, there’s at least five students that Umbridge will demand be put down. Then there’s the muggleborns, only a few of them were registered and they all broke the conditions of the registry. You know what that means, not just for them, but for the unregistered.” Snape nodded. “There’s roughly twenty people, most of them students, that Kingsley and McGonagall want me to hide.”

“How…?” The cracked voice was quiet, little more than an audible breath.

“The Wizengamot had no choice about convicting Harry, but they did on his sentencing. Before Harry chose his sentence, they allowed him to choose five things per sentence, things to take with him or to have done before or after he left. But even then, he knew he was choosing the veil. His requests were wands, Battle robes, the contents of his vault, his mokeskin pouch and a trunk containing anything that I think he should take.” Snape’s eyes widened at Hermione’s smirk. “That’s right. Anything that **_I_** think he should take. Kingsley was the one to suggest that we send some of the survivors with him, particularly those that would be executed if they stayed. And to protect Harry, he won’t know about those in the trunk, until he gets to wherever he’s going. So far we’ve spoken to Remus and he’s in.” All that wasn't quite true but it was fairly close and saved Hermione from having to go into too much detail, just yet.

“Wife…? Son…?”

“Tonks didn’t survive, and Kingsley’s going to go and get Teddy, he can stay with Remus until we’re ready to act.” Hermione answered. “You’re the next on the list, Professor. We can send you with Harry, we can just let you walk out the door or we can hand you over to the Ministry. It’s your choice. But I need to know, and soon, I can give you a day or so to think about it, but any longer may cause delays or risk someone finding out about you and taking the choice out of our hands.” Hermione said, trying to be as clear and a concise as she could, even though she badly wanted to give him all the details. She knew that could happen later.

“Yes…” Snape nodded. “I shall go…”

“Excellent. The corridor that this room is on is a Hogwarts secret, known only to the medi-witch, the Headmaster and Deputy Head. The only access points are in the Deputy Head’s private office and the medi-witch’s private office. If you see anyone or anyone knocks on the door, you can safely assume that they know about our plan, as Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall are so far the only ones outside this corridor that know of this plan.”

“Good…”

“Once you’re on your feet, we’ll get your help in planning and stocking a potions lab and apothecary. But for now, you concentrate on getting better, we need you at your best, sir.” Snape nodded. “Good. We’ll leave you to rest, if you need someone, that bell-pull will alert Madam Pomfrey.” Hermione turned and left the room, Kingsley following her, never having said a word.

“Fred next.” Hermione knocked on the next door. “Fred? I’m coming in, you better be decent.”

A choked snort answered her, followed by a whimper of pain. “Easy now.” Hermione was across the room and holding Fred’s hand before Kingsley could even react. “Easy…”

Fred looked up at her and mouthed a word. “George?”

“Bad, he thinks you’re dead, so do the rest of the family and Molly’s already at him to sign the shop over to Percy.” Fred gave a silent snarl. “Don’t worry about that, Kingsley got that under control. Have Pomfrey and McGonagall kept you in the loop? Do you know what’s happening?” Fred shook his head. “Alright, I’ll explain. Kingsley found Ron, Harry and I out on…” for the next ten minutes Hermione told Fred what had happened that day, who had survived and what Kingsley had suggested for them. How Remus and Snape had both agreed. What they planned to do as far as getting George to go to. And who else they were going to approach. “… and that’s where we’re at, right now, Fred. If I can get George and the girls on board, are you coming with us?”

“Hermione?” Kingsley asked.

“What? You think I’m going to let my brothers travel off gods-know-where, without me? Get your head out of the sand, Kingsley. They’re the only family I have left, of course I’m going with them.” Hermione snapped.

Fred gave this funny almost silent noise in his throat that was a cross between a chuckle and a cough, that put no pressure on his injuries.

“Oh, hush you.” Hermione smacked at his fingers, without actually coming in contact with them, as they lay on the bed bedside her hand. “Are you coming or not?”

Fred gave a tired smirk and a minute twitch of the head in a ‘yes’ motion.

“Great. Like I told Professor Snape, the only people that can access this corridor are the ones that know about our plan and are either coming or helping us get ready. So, don’t worry about them. I need to talk to the students, now. You rest and get better, we need your help in planning, think of it as a prank on everyone.”

Fred made that funny noise again and dipped his head.

“Later.” Hermione left the room and closed the door behind her. “This is where it could get difficult…” She tapped on another door. “Guys? It’s Hermione. Can I come in?”

There was no verbal answer, but the door was opened. Dennis Creevey stood there, tear tracks down his face. His chin wobbled and Hermione’s heart broke for him, she opened her arms and the little fourth year buried himself in them.

“Come on, Dennis, let’s sit down, I need to talk to you and Colin.”

“He won’t say anything. He hasn’t, not since he was told.” Dennis whispered.

“That’s alright, I’ve a way around that. Guys, I need your help.” Both boys looked at her like she was crazy. “Harry’s in trouble and…” she explained to them what had been planned and finished with, “… so Remus is going, he’s a werewolf, he was bitten years ago, by the same wolf that bit Colin, Lavender, Katie, Parvati and Natalie. He can teach you how to be a good wolf and he’s always said that having a pack meant the wolf was less aggressive. So, how about it? Are you going to come with Harry and us?”

“But you’re not telling him?” Dennis asked.

“No, not until we get to the other side.”

“What if he doesn’t open the trunk?”

“I can always send him a patronus message.” Hermione answered.

“We have nothing but our school stuff.” Dennis said.

“We’ve got that covered. Harry’s been left a huge amount of money and he doesn’t really want it, he said he was going to leave it to me, but I’m going too, so I figure that we’ll use it to get everything we need, everything we might want to take with us. Replace everything that was destroyed.” Hermione explained.

“I’m going.” Colin whispered. “I’m not staying here.”

“Great. I’ll see if I can get Madam Pomfrey to let you spend some time with Remus. The next full moon is only a week away, if anyone’s not well enough to cope, we might have to knock them out for the night. But that’s up to Madam Pomfrey. For now, you rest and get better. The only people that can get into this corridor are those that know about the plan so don’t worry about letting something slip. Okay?” Hermione patted Dennis’ hand and gave both boys hugs. “I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can. Don’t push yourselves and do try and listen to Madam Pomfrey.” She left the room and paused beside the door to the girls’ room.

“You might want to wait out here, this is going to be rough.” She entered the room without knocking or calling out and closed the door behind her.

Kingsley waited patiently but it was almost half an hour before a red-eyed Hermione emerged from the room. As the closed behind her, her shoulders slumped, her head fell forward and sobs shook her body. The wizard stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. Eventually, the sobs died and after a shuddering breath, Hermione stepped back.

“Better now?” King asked.

“No, but I don’t have time to cry, not yet.”

“No, you don’t. Minerva came through, the Ministry have announced Harry sentence and what’s involved in it. She’s asking us, you and me, to tell everyone here about it and maybe answer some questions.”

“The Great Hall?”

“Yes.” Kingsley nodded.

“When?”

“As soon as we can. Dinner is in an hour, if we can get it over with by then, that would be good.”

“Alright. Let’s go tell the masses what their saviour is going to do.” Hermione sneered.

“We’re not mentioning those going in the trunk, are we?”

“No, the public doesn’t need to know.” Hermione agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

_“No, you don’t. Minerva came through, the Ministry have announced Harry sentence and what’s involved in it. She’s asking us, you and me, to tell everyone here about it and maybe answer some questions.”_

_“The Great Hall?”_

_“Yes.” Kingsley nodded._

_“When?”_

_“As soon as we can. Dinner is in an hour, if we can get it over with by then, that would be good.”_

_“Alright. Let’s go tell the masses what their saviour is going to do.” Hermione sneered._

_“We’re not mentioning those going in the trunk, are we?”_

_“No, the public doesn’t need to know.” Hermione agreed._

Hermione stayed at Kingsley’s side as they entered the Great Hall and walked down the centre of the crowded space, ignoring Ron and his family’s calls to join them. Up onto the small platform that usually held the staff table but was now just another rubble laden area of the Hall.

“Your attention please.” McGonagall used a _sonorous_ charm to amplify her voice. “You’ve all seen the notice put out by the Ministry this evening. And I know that many of you have questions. I’ve asked Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hermione Granger, who were present during the proceedings, to give us what additional information they can and if possible, to answer some of your questions. Kingsley, Hermione?”

“Thank you, Professor McGonagall.” Kingsley’s deep voice filled the Hall. “I’ve read the Prophet’s article and it’s quite accurate… for a change. So, I won’t go into what happened, instead I’ll try and explain how it happened and what that means for you, for Harry and for our future.”

“Thank you, Kingsley.” McGonagall nodded.

“Because the previous Minister died in battle, even though he was under the _imperius_ curse, this caused the Ministry to fall under Mordred’s Law. The problem there was that, under Mordred’s Law, no new Minister could be named until all outstanding Class One warrants must be finalised. And Harry’s was the only one.”

Someone shouted that the warrant should have been invalid because you-know-who had ordered it, that Harry had been the victim.

“Personally, I agree.” Kingsley said. “But it wasn’t up to me, it had been officially issued by the Wizengamot and has to be dealt with by them. The good thing about Mordred’s Law is that when sitting in judgement under it, the Wizengamot members are placed under a special set of memory charms. Under those charms, they had no idea who Harry was, they wouldn’t remember his name or ever having heard it before. They **_have_** to judge him solely on the evidence provided. And unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of it. He was involved in two attacks on the Ministry and in the death of a number of people. Yes, they were to thwart you-know-who, but they still happened.”

“He lost.” Hermione stood beside Kingsley. “There were so many things that we did during the war... things that might have had to be done to get rid of you-know-who, but we still **_did_** them. The Wizengamot gave Harry his choice out of three sentences. Life imprisonment. Life in Exile. Or go through the Veil.” The hall went silent.

“Life imprisonment, he discarded that instantly.” Kingsley said. “He’d seen what that did to people.”

“Life in Exile, he considered. But as a part of it would be binding his core and locking away his memories, he couldn’t stand that.” Hermione went on.

“He chose the Veil. He’ll keep his memories, his magic and his possessions.” Kingsley said. “This makes things complicated, for Harry and for the Ministry. Albus Dumbledore sealed James and Lily Potter’s Wills and placed himself as Harry’s guardian, but **_legally_**... he wasn’t. The Ministry, Gringotts and Harry now have to sort out the estate of Harry’s parents, his godfather and he was also named as executor of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin’s Wills. Gringotts have to audit and ratify everything that has Harry’s name attached to it or any business that he’s a shareholder in. That’s going to take time.”

“As a result of this,” Hermione said, “Harry’s sentence won’t happen for a while, the exact time is undetermined, as yet. It depends on the Department of Mysteries’ investigation.”

“While he waits, Harry’s being given some leniencies, but there are certain things that are standard procedure. From the moment the sentence was decided on, until it is enacted, Harry will remain under Auror guard, he’ll wear a protection cuff with his Auror guard wearing the other, this will limit him to not being able to go more than six feet from his guard before he’ll be portkeyed back to the Ministry, if that happens, he may lose that privilege altogether. As with all convicts, he’ll be given a sterility potion, these are reapplied each year. He will be allowed a maximum of three hours per day outside the Ministry." It was actually four hours, but they felt that having that extra hour, that no-one knew about might come in handy, when it came time for Harry to face the public. "He will not be permitted to eat or drink outside the DMLE, unless the food or drinks have been tested by his Auror guard. And he’ll wear a spell redirection cuff, to ensure that he’s safe from stray curses and the like.” Kingsley went on.

The silence was… loud.

“And that’s where he is now.” Hermione sighed.

“Questions?” Kingsley asked.

“The Veil of Death? Won’t that kill him?” Molly whispered. And even though she whispered, the Hall was so quiet that everyone heard her.

“The Unspeakables don’t call it the Veil of death, they call it the Veil of Judgement. They believe it was created to judge a person when the Wizengamot weren't able to reach a verdict.” Hermione paraphrased the description Croaker had given her after they’d left Harry. “Depending on its judgement, he’ll be set somewhere else.”

“Where will the veil take him?” Someone yelled from the back of the Hall.

“That’s unknown at this time, but there’s a strong possibility that it will be to either a parallel world or to an alternate universe, the DoM are still investigating that.” Kingsley answered.

“It’s a part of why his sentence won’t start for a while, they need more information. Until they get it, he’s staying in an interview room in the DMLE.” Hermione added.

“You said Gringotts are involved in sorting out the Potter estate, what will happen to the properties?” An older man asked.

“I’d guess, and this is just a guess, because nothing has been finalised... that he’ll either give them to friends or get the goblins to sell them and use the money to fund the rebuilding of Hogwarts. It hasn’t really been discussed in depth, until the goblins know exactly what he has in the way of assets, those type of plans are pointless.” Hermione answered.

“Is he allowed visitors?” A woman asked.

“He is, but all visitors have to abide by the standard DMLE visitation rules. No food, no potions, no charms, no portkeys, no wands, no privacy. Not while waiting for his sentence to start.” Kingsley answered. “He’ll have an Auror guard with him twenty-four hours a day.”

There was a smattering of disappointed mutters from a lot of people.

“What is he taking with him?” A young boy wearing Hufflepuff robes asked.

“At this point we don’t know, not really. Definitely a trunk with clothes, books, a tent, potions, food and money. After that? I don’t know, we haven’t got that far. We’ve only known about this for… what? A few hours? Three? Maybe less? Give us a few more days and we’ll have a better idea.” Kingsley replied.

“Which brings us to a point. The things on Harry’s list are fairly evenly split between muggle-based and wizarding. I won’t have time to get them all, so I’m hoping that some of you will help out with some shopping, you’ll be paid for your time, of course. If you’re interested, put your names in the box outside the Headmaster’s… sorry, Headmistress’ office and I’ll try and get to each of you.”

“Headmaster’s office.” McGonagall corrected. “I’m retiring, my health hasn’t been good since… for the last few years and the healers from St. Mungo's have recommended that I not continue teaching. It’s time to be with my family. Professor Flitwick will be the new Headmaster but... with a pair of administrative assistants to help with the parchmentwork, he’ll still be teaching charms. Angelina Cole has been asked to join the staff as the Muggle Studies Professor and head of Gryffindor house. Chester Davies will be taking the transfiguration post and will be the new head of Ravenclaw. I will remain until mid-June and have agreed to assist Miss Granger in preparing for Mr Potter’s… sentence. After which I will be travelling with Miss Granger as she leaves to be with her family.”

“How is Harry?” Oliver Wood asked.

“Tired, mostly.” Hermione sighed. “He’s been seen by a healer and while he has a lot of injuries, few of them are from the war, most are unhealed or poorly healed injuries from his family and his earlier years here. Madam Pomfrey did the best she could but keeping Harry alive was often more important than a badly healed injury, sustained during the summer. As a result, St. Mungo's are going to have vanish and regrow a number of his bones and nerves. His eyesight will be repaired, and curse-breakers will be called in to assist in the removal of curse-inflicted scars.”

“Until St. Mungo's are through with their treatments, Harry won’t be leaving the DMLE’s hospital wing. That could be as far away as two weeks.” Kingsley’s comment brought gasps of shock. Most injuries could be healed in a matter of hours, so two weeks of healers, only emphasised the severity of Harry’s condition.

“Can gifts be sent to him?” Cho Chang asked. “We should be thanking him for freeing us.”

“You can, but all gifts would have to pass a screening process. For the moment, the goblins are handling all correspondence to Harry. You can send anything via Gringotts, but a warning… Any items that hold harmful charms, jinxes, hexes, curses or potions will be given to the DMLE and charges will be laid. Don’t even bother trying, because they just won’t get to Harry and you’ll end up in a holding cell of your own.” Kingsley answered.

There were a few of the younger girls who’s shoulders slumped. Ginny Weasley looked like she was about to burst into tears and Molly was no better.

“Is Harry the reason why, you told me not to decide anything about the shop?” George asked.

“Yes, George. Harry gave you the start-up gold and you named him as a silent partner. That’s put your shop under observation, along with everything else that Harry’s connected to.” Kingsley nodded.

“When will that be resolved, do you think?” Percy asked officiously.

“It could be a week, it could be a month, it could take until the day before Harry enters the veil. We don’t know. The goblins are working on it, but they have to consult with Harry and everyone else that’s named.” Kingsley said.

“Will George and I meeting with Harry, bring that forward?” Percy asked.

“No, for two reasons.” Kingsley squared his jaw. “One, as of the close of business yesterday, your name was not listed on the shop’s papers, so you won’t be involved in whatever discussion happens. Two, Gringotts have to work their way through all items in chronological order, from the day Harry’s parents died. The shop is going to be one of the last items to be assessed. I’m sorry, that just how it’s going to be, the older items have influenced many newer items and that has to be taken into consideration.”

Percy nodded sharply and proceeded to stalk his way out of the Hall.

“I think that’s enough for tonight.” Professor Flitwick called out. “I would ask Auror Shacklebolt and Miss Granger to keep us up to date on Mr Potter’s progress. If anyone has new questions, I’ll put a box here in the Hall, clearly labelled ‘Potter questions’ and a noticeboard where answers can be posted, as we find them out. For now, let us eat and retire for the night, the next few weeks are going to be quite stressful. Staff, I would ask to meet me in the staffroom so that we can work out what will happen in relation to classes and exams.” The tiny Professor clapped his hands and tables began to rearrange themselves.

Barely had a table came to halt, when platters of food appeared, piles of clean plates at intervals along the tables. Benches righted themselves and skidded across the flagstone floor to form small groups.

“I suggest that people prepare themselves a plate and find somewhere to sit. The house elves assure me that there is ample for us all.” Flitwick added.

“Hermione?” Ron nudged her. “We’re going back to the new Burrow. Get your stuff and meet us in the Entrance Hall.”

“I’m staying here, Ron.” Hermione sighed tiredly.

“No, you’re coming with us.” Ron objected.

“No, Ronald, I’m not. I am staying here, in Hogwarts.” Hermione said clearly.

“Hermione…?” Ron wasn’t sure what she meant.

“No.” Hermione stood up and moved away. “No, Ronald, no. I am not going with you, I am not going to stay with your family, I am not going to let you tell me what to do.”

“But… you kissed me… you’re my girlfriend… that’s what happens, boyfriends tell girlfriends what to do…” Ron looked at her in confusion.

“Really? So, Ginny’s boyfriends are allowed to tell her where she’s going to live, are they?” Hermione looked at the angry looks on a number of girls’ faces. “No, Ronald that’s not how it works. Boyfriends should respect their girlfriends and their choices. But irrespective of that, I am not your girlfriend. I kissed you, so what? You’ve not asked and quite bluntly, I have no interest in being a trophy girlfriend and that is all you want, at present. And right now? I don’t have time for a boyfriend. I have a brother to see to and parents to find. Maybe later, but definitely not now.” With that Hermione stalked away.

In the battered remains of the Gryffindor common room, Hermione found Angelina, Alicia and Lee, holding a lethargic George.

“Excellent, you’re all here, I need to speak to you four.” Hermione stomped over to them and cast a strong privacy ward. “I need your help.”

“George needs us more.” Lee cut her off.

“Actually, this is bigger than me or George. There were survivors from last night, but if the Ministry finds out about them, they’ll be executed.” Hermione replied candidly. “Five students were attacked by werewolves, Madam Pomfrey doesn’t know if they’ve been turned, it’s too early for it to register on the testing charms. In addition to them, there’s a number of muggleborn orphans and you know what Umbridge has done about them.”

Alicia looked at Hermione. “So, how can we help? What do you expect us to do?”

“The trunk going with Harry? McGonagall, Pomfrey and Kingsley want me to make it liveable with pocket-spaces and send the at endangered students with Harry. Kingsley also said that he didn’t want Harry to know, as he would try to fight for them and that would just make things worse.” Hermione answered.

“Who’re you talking about?” Lee frowned.

“The Creevey brothers, Colin survived, but was attacked, both are muggleborn and now orphans thanks to the Death-Eaters.” Hermione started. “Same with Natalie McDonald and Katie. Lavender and Parvati might be purebloods, but that won’t save them, not after Greyback bit them both. They’d be dead within minutes of the Ministry knowing about them. Then there’s the muggleborns and muggle-raised. Euan Abercrombie, Justin Finch-Fletchly, Dean, Seamus and you three. Umbridge would have your wands snapped, your cores bound, and your memories removed within hours. The only options are getting you out of the country and with the way the Ministry is right now? That’s not easy.” Hermione sighed. “And Padma? Her sister is… possibly… a werewolf. As far as the Ministry is concerned, her reputation is gone.”

Lee looked at her in shock. “Bloody hell…”

“Exactly. And that’s not all of the survivors, I can’t name the others, not without their permission, but all up? Not including you three, there’s at least fifteen people to hide and that's likely to increase. We just don’t have the resources to hide them, get them new identities, get them out of the country and set them up. Well, we have the finances, but not the manpower. We need help. Most of those involved are students and thanks to the Death-Eaters, they have nothing but what is here at the school. The DoM are fairly confident that where Harry’s going to end up, identification is not going to be an issue, why that is, they haven’t told me. If they stay here, it’s going to be a nightmare to deal with. Trying to create new Ids in other countries is going to have to involve other governments and that will alert ours and that will put the students at even more risk. No, sending them with Harry is the easiest option. The Ministry won't act until he's no longer a threat, so we have a little breathing room but once Harry's gone...? If you're not going with him, your time is running out.”

Alicia tilted her head. “Yeah, you might be right.”

“But each person needs so much.” Hermione warned. “Some of them we can smuggle into the muggle world and they’ll be fine to do their own shopping, but some are too badly injured. I need shoppers, in the wizarding world and in the muggle world. Will you help?”

“I want to go with Harry.” George whispered. Lee, Angelina and Alicia all gasped. “No.” He held up a hand. “No, let me finish. Fred’s… Fred’s… and mum’s already trying to get me to sign over the shop. Percy’s already trying to change it. Ron’s whining about me not giving him products, Ginny wants a job, but doesn’t want to put in the hours. They’ve gone back home and not one of them has realised that I’m up here and not with them.”

“Bill and Charlie did, but they felt that we would be more comfort, than the rest of the _family_.” Angelina sneered the last word.

“Alright, George. I’m not going to try and talk you out of it, because I don’t think you **_should_** stay here. I’m not. I’ve followed Harry since Halloween of our first year and I’m not about to stop now.” Hermione shook her head.

“Of course, you’re not.” Alicia snorted. “We could have told you that.”

“You’d never leave your brother to fend for himself.” Lee added.

“And we all know that you see Harry as a brother.” Angelina said.

“What should I do about the shop?” George asked.

“Get a product listing and pack up half the stock, empty out the vault, all except for enough to keep the shop running for the next six weeks. The Unspeakables are recommending that we buy everything we could possibly need and convert anything we have left to gold and gems. Ingots, jewellery, cut stones. No actual money, wizarding or muggle.” Hermione answered. “Let Molly think that you’re coming around to their way of thinking, that running the shop without Fred is too much. Then the day before Harry enters the veil, empty the vaults, again and sign the papers. Let them have the shop, you know they’ll go belly up, very quick, none of them have your skills with pranks.”

“If George’s going, so are we.” Lee point to Angelina, Alicia and back to himself.

“That’s fine. But you’re going to have to help, I can’t do this alone.” Hermione agreed.

“Should we talk to Bill and Charlie?” George asked.

“Only if you can do it, in such a way that no-one else can overhear.” Hermione warned. “It might be better to leave that to me or Kingsley. We need to speak to Bill about Ollivander, anyway. Harry’s going to need new wands and because the chances are, he’ll never be anywhere that he can get a replacement, he needs backups.”

“Can we get new wands, too?” Lee asked. “The muggleborn registry took mine and while I’ve got my dads’, it doesn’t like me much.”

“We can do that.” Hermione nodded.

“What are we going to tell people?” Angelina asked.

“We’ll just tell them that you’re my primary shoppers and that you’re using it as a way to keep George occupied and stop him from moping.” Hermione smiled. “That way we can plan in public and people will think that we’re planning on Harry’s behalf.”

“Why weren’t you sorted into Slytherin?” Lee asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

“Muggleborn…” Hermione reminded him.

“Huh... yeah, I forgot.” He muttered.

“Trust me, I didn’t.” Hermione huffed.

“Alright, where do we start?” Angelina asked.

Hermione grinned and dropped the privacy charm. “We start at the beginning. I know that Harry needs clothes, but… St. Mungo's are still working on him, they think that with proper healing, he should be taller and broader.”

“Why didn’t Madam Pomfrey pick up on his condition?” Alicia asked.

“She did, she says she even reported it to Dumbledore, filled out all the appropriate forms, but nothing ever came of it. She sent requests for permission to treat him, buy nothing was ever sent back. Now, she believes that Dumbledore may have been stalling her. If Harry had gone to St. Mungo's, the Ministry would have been notified, which would have alerted the Death-Eaters. Like I said in the Great Hall, keeping Harry alive was more important than repairing an old injury.”

“So, clothes aren’t first on the list.” Alicia huffed.

“No, not yet.” Hermione agreed.

“Look we’ll make some notes. You go and talk to… some of the others, see if you can get a few more helping. Longbottom can put together a greenhouse, Harry may not have access to potions and ingredients if he doesn’t take them with him.” Angelina said.

“Thanks, guys.” Hermione left the common room in search of Neville and Luna.


	5. Chapter 5

_“Look we’ll make some notes. You go and talk to… some of the others, see if you can get a few more helping. Longbottom can put together a greenhouse, Harry may not have access to potions ingredients if he doesn’t take them with him.” Angelina said._

_“Thanks, guys.” Hermione left the common room in search of Neville and Luna._

The next morning, Hermione entered the Ministry alongside Kingsley, quietly talking about what Hermione and her recruits had come up with.

“Look, I think it would be better to tell Harry what they’ve put of the lists.” Kingsley said. “He may have a few more ideas.”

“His ideas tend to scare me.” Hermione admitted.

“Well, you have to admit that they also scared you-who-who and his followers, too.”

“Oh, yes, that's one reason Ron and I followed him.”

“And this time… it’s not our lives on the line, but it is his. Give him a chance, you have no idea what he’s thinking, just yet.” Kingsley cautioned.

“Fine.” Hermione nodded.

A few more minutes of walking and they reached the hospital wing and the room that Harry would stay in until the healers were happy with his condition. A lone trainee standing guard at the door, greeted them and quietly opened the door.

“Mr Potter is up and about, the healers have been in and left him a potion, in preparation for the start of his treatment.” The young witch reported.

“Thank you, trainee.” Hermione gave her a brief smile as she passed entered the room.

“Thank you, trainee Laurence.” Kingsley nodded to the trainee.

“Morning Mione, Kingsley.” Harry was sitting at the table alongside a bed, a sheet of parchment in front of him. “Mione, come check me. See what else needs to go on this list.”

“Good morning, Harry. I met with a few people from the D.A. last night and we worked on a list, too. Let’s compare and see how we went.” Hermione sat beside Harry while Kingsley sat on the foot of the bed.

“Great. Clothes were the top of my list.” Harry said.

“Same here. But we think it should wait until the healers are done with you. I know you need clothes, but I think you should only get a couple of changes until the healers are finished. They did say that your height and build could be altered as a result of their treatments.” Hermione reminded him.

“Oh, yeah I forgot that.”

“We didn’t. Once the healers are done with you, then get clothes. Or at least get measured for them. Alicia and Justin will go shopping for you in the muggle world and get muggle style clothes. Neville and Lee will see to the wizarding clothes. Bill will see to battle robes.” Hermione laid her lever-arch folder down on the table and opened it to the first section. “We plan on covering everything, Harry. Underwear, sleepwear, gym clothes, casual stuff, even a few changes of semi-formal and formal wear. I spoke with the Unspeakables after I left you, yesterday. They think you’re more likely to end up in an alternate universe, rather than a parallel one. That being the case, they think that there’s a strong chance that what you take with you is all you will have, as far as magic is concerned. Potions ingredients, books, tools, plants, animals and equipment that have a magical use, I mean. Their research so far, points towards a more primitive civilization, technology-wise. More like the wizarding world, as opposed to the muggle world.”

“So, don’t bother trying to take a TV, huh?” Harry tried to lighted the mood.

“Exactly. So, we’re looking at a potions’ lab, with a fully stocked ingredients store and a fully stocked apothecary cabinet. A greenhouse for fresh herbs and if necessary, vegetables. A library, we’ve asked Professor Flitwick, who is the new headmaster, if we can have the Potter library that Dumbledore took, to send with you. McGonagall mentioned taking the Black library from Grimmauld Place and raiding The Junk Shop for all their books and seeing what The Old Bookshelf will sell us. Luna and Padma are doing the library, with assistance from Michael Corner and Terry Boot.” Hermione laid a sheet of parchment with a carefully written-out table on it, in front of Harry. “See.” She pointed to the first row. “Clothes, muggle, Justin and Alicia. Clothes, wizarding, Neville and Lee. Battle robes is Bill. Library is Luna, Padma, Michael and Terry. Potions, ingredients, completed potions and apothecary store is under the watchful eye of Madam Pomfrey. Greenhouses are Neville and Fleur. Stationery is Su Li and Kevin. Broomsticks and associated equipment are being done by George and Angelina. Household stuff is being handled by Kreacher and he’ll have lots of help, he’s in charge, but he got a kick out of the idea of being able to order witches and wizards about. And I’ve got about fifty names of people that want to help, that I haven’t got to, yet.”

“Oh, good grief…” Harry sighed.

“Oliver Wood has a car… or well, a van, I should say. He’s going to do the driving for the muggle shoppers. They’ll hit a few Tesco’s and some Sainsburys, a couple of each, every few days. We don’t know where you’re going to end up, so we don’t know what food you’ll have access to. We thought that it would be easier to just stock up and put everything under stasis charms.” Hermione shrugged.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Harry nodded.

“I’ve got a rough list of pocket-spaces we’ll need but I know that there’ll probably be more.” Hermione sighed. “What we’re aiming for is… When you enter the veil, you’ll wear combat fatigues, not battle robes, but pretty close, save the robes for dire emergencies. You’ll have a rucksack on your back, in one pocket will be a shrunken broom. In the rucksack will be a shrunken trunk, a tent, a shrunken stasis box, holding a week’s worth of food, and a mixed magical/muggle first aid kit.”

“That sounds fine.” Harry hummed.

“And the trunk? That will have two compartments. One will be massively expanded and the other will be only slightly larger. The smaller compartment will have a selection of stuff, potions, food, blankets, gold, books and clothes. The larger compartment will actually be a room. At this point, we’re thinking of about ten-by-twenty feet, but that might change. It will have pocket-spaces on most walls. A bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a laundry, a potions’ lab, storage rooms, a greenhouse and a garden. However, if we go with a Professor’s idea, that garden will be very large. More of a paddock than a garden, something big enough for you to fly in.”

Harry smiled. “You know me so well.”

“I do. Which is why I’ve asked George and Angelina to get a you some brooms. The firebolt from Sirius is special and you should keep it that way.” Hermione smiled back. “The only other thing is… McGonagall suggests that you talk to her or Croaker and get some lessons on doing your animagi transformation. Forty-five days isn’t very long, but if that’s pretty much all you’re concentrating on, you can do it.” Hermione said.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

“And the rest? How do you feel about me organising the rest? It’s your gold I’m spending.”

“I’m good with that. Spend as much as you like. Just don’t forget to leave some for yourself.”

“There’s one other thing I need to talk to you about.” Hermione threw up a [_muffliato_](muffling%20charm). “Teddy.”

“What about him?”

“Tonks’ mother wants nothing to do with him. Kingsley went to see her and tell her about Tonks, and she told him to take Teddy, that she didn’t want a werewolf's spawn in her house. She went all pureblood about it.” Hermione whispered.

“Where’s Teddy now?”

“At Hogwarts. Katie Bell’s looking after him, she was bitten by one of Greyback’s pack and is in the hospital wing. You’re his godfather and I’m his godmother. I’ve agreed to take him, he deserved to be loved, Harry.” Hermione gave a sad smile, leaving out that she was talking about taking him into the trunk, along with his father.

“And you will. But… what about Ron? I can’t see him wanting to be a father at seventeen.”

“Ron? No. Ron tried ordering me around, yesterday. That put an end to anything we might have had. Teddy just reinforced that.” Hermione held up a hand. “No, Harry. I’d already come to that decision before Kingsley brought Teddy to Hogwarts. I am not a trophy and I will not be forced into being one. If and when I marry, my husband will respect me, he will know better than to try and order me around.”

“You’d think he’d know better by now.” Harry shook his head. “How’s George doing?”

“Rough. Fred’s… Less than twelve hours and Molly’s already been at George to sign the shop over to Percy. The family went back to the new Burrow and they didn’t even realise that George didn’t go with them. He stayed with the quidditch girls and Lee.”

“Aw, no. That’s not… Now, if only you could put George in that trunk, along with everything else, Mione.” Harry muttered.

“I wish… I’d be the first person booking a space, I’m your sister, I get priority.” Hermione laughed, only half joking.

“Wouldn’t that be fun? Getting to take George, Mione and Teddy with me.” Harry gave her a loopy smile. “Ooh, the potion’s kicked in, ni-i-ice…” The last word was a long drawn out sigh of bliss.

“Harry?”

A healer entered the room. “Oh, good timing, huh?” He grinned as Hermione looked around at him. “That potion is a magical version of ‘happy gas’. We have to do a couple of pretty nasty things to him, before we can start to repair the damage. We’ll be keeping him knocked out for at least four days, more likely five. Once the curse-breaking team is done, we have to vanish his bones and some nerves and regrow them, we can only do a couple at a time, hence the four or five days. And now that the potion’s kicked in, you won’t get anything sensible out of him. Sorry, we couldn’t wait, some of his bones are in a bad way, he needs as much time to recover as we can give him.” The healer explained.

“Oh, I see. Thank you for explaining.” Hermione turned back to a Harry that was grinning and rocking his head from side to side, listening to music only he could hear. “Harry? Kingsley and I are going to go, we’ll speak to Croaker and see how much we can get started on. I’ll pop in each morning to see you. Okay?” It was automatic for Hermione to explain her acts to Harry.

“Hmm… A trunk of Hermione and George… maybe I should ask if I can have Buckbeak… ooh Norberta… Fluffy… Fang…Fevvil… rura… arrrie…” Harry’s voice dropped to an indistinguishable level, while his eyes closed, and he slumped back in the chair.

“Oh, wow…” Hermione tried not to laugh. “I have to share that. Harry on happy gas, Moony will wet himself laughing.”

“Out, Hermione, out.” Kingsley was no better.

“Yes, out.” The healer laughed with them. “The rest is not pretty. Pop in, in the morning, we can give you an update, but he’ll still be out. I understand that the trainees have taken over his guard duty to free you up to get things done while he’s with us. Someone will be with him, twenty-four hours a day, don’t fret. We know what we’re doing.”

In the DMLE bull-pen, Williams let them get a mug of tea, before he told them that the Unspeakables had requested their presence, immediately. Kingsley sighed.

“Aw, crap, what now?” Hermione moaned.

“No idea.” Williams shook his head. “But if it had been life threatening, Croaker wouldn’t have left a message, he’d have gone after you himself.”

“There is that.” Kingsley nodded.

“Alright, let’s go.” Hermione pulled herself to her feet. “I got more rest while I was on the run from the bloody Death-Eaters.” She muttered as she stalked towards the lifts.

Five minutes later, they sat in Croaker’s office.

“I understand the healers are knocking Potter out for a few days while they deal with his injuries?” The Unspeakable said.

“Yes, they’ve already started.” Hermione nodded.

“We’ve had a complication, Croaker. Not with Harry, but at Hogwarts.” Kingsley cut in before she could add more.

“What happened?”

“Stop, Kingsley, stop. Croaker works for the Ministry, you can’t tell him, you know what will happen.” Hermione was frantic.

“Hold on, that’s not quite right. I _**do**_ work for the Ministry, but the DoM is _**outside**_ the Ministry’s laws, in a far as what we can do. But in this particular case? Miss Granger, I was assigned… by myself as head Unspeakable, admittingly… to Potter’s case. The Wizengamot ordered that we assist Potter. And one of the things he wanted was the trunk.”

“Yes, but-”

“ _ **But...**_ is the right word. We are to assist you in preparing that trunk.”

“Yes, but-”

“And how did Mr Potter describe that trunk?” Croaker asked.

“A trunk containing anything that Hermione Granger thinks I may need.” Hermione answered promptly.

“Exactly, Miss Granger, _**exactly**_.” Croaker nodded. “A trunk that contains anything you _**think**_ he may need. And that is what we will help you provide.”

“I don’t…”

“If you think Potter’s going to need a broom, then we will see that a broom is in the trunk. Likewise, if you think that he needs a hundred-acre pocket-space, then we’ll see to a hundred-acre pocket-space. Or a potions lab. Or a quidditch pitch. If you think it should be in the trunk, then we’ll see that it’s in the trunk.” Croaker tapped the table with each thing he listed.

“Oh… okay…” Hermione breathed out before sucking in another breath. “There are survivors from the battle, but with the current Ministry laws, they’d be executed or have their magic bound. All up, there could as many as thirty people, maybe even more. Some of them the Ministry already thinks are dead. Some if the public found out about them, they’d be lynched. Others are muggleborn orphans. And the rest are either unregistered or broke their conditions of registration. And a few that just won't let the others go without them.”

“Oh, hell…” Croaker muttered.

“Exactly. We want to send them with Harry. And me, too.” Hermione added.

“I see. So, what exactly do you need?” Croaker asked.

“I need a large pocket-space. You mentioned a hudnred acres? That would be perfect. We could buy some of those ready-built houses and put our people in them. Make a small, completely self-contained settlement. All in Harry’s trunk.”

Croaker blinked and thought about that. “That… that might actually work…” He mused. “You’d need… houses, yes. But also, a place for a hospital, a commissary, gardens, warehouses… It’d be a lot of work to get established.”

“I’ve got people to hide, they can do that.” Hermione shrugged. “As long as my shoppers can get the supplies and materials, they can put things in place.”

Kingsley stuck out his chin as he nodded. “That would keep them busy and involved.”

“I’m thinking, that I divide people into five categories.” Hermione pulled out her lever-arch folder again. “One, the general public, they know that I’m putting the trunk together for Harry, but nothing more. Two, the public shoppers, they do the shopping, here in the wizarding world and out there in the muggle world, too, but they aren’t aware of too much in the way of details. If I can spin it right, they’ll be involved in the purchase of houses and tents that will mostly be used by those that lost their homes to the Death-Eaters, or while the school is being rebuilt. Three, people that are going with Harry, but the general public aren’t aware of that, people like George Weasley, Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Justin Finch-Fletchly, to name a few. They will send product to the fourth category, which is people that we are hiding, but that the people in category three know about. Katie Bell, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Colin and Dennis Creevey.” She showed the table of shoppers, who was responsible for what. "And the last category are Remus Lupin, Snape and Fred. Only Madam Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick are aware of them. Excluding us three, of course."

“Oh, my…” Croaker gasped quietly. “Yes, yes, I can see where you’re going. Well done. It’s going to cost a lot.”

“Harry’s not worried. The Ministry’s already set up a disaster relief fund. We’ll add to that and just redirect a few things.” Hermione smiled.

“Yes… The Ministry have requisitioned a hundred-and-fifty ready-built houses and fifty tents.” Croaker told them.

“So… we increase that to two hundred-and-twenty houses and one-hundred tents. We siphon off fifty houses and twenty tents.” Hermione shrugged.

“And in the meantime, I’ll get my people working on pocket-spaces. How many do you need? And what types of spaces? I can get you a hundred-acre space, but it won’t be established. You might be better going with a smaller one, let me work on it.”

“Fine. Other than one to put the buildings in… We need standard ones for the trunk. Actually…” Hermione began to hum in thought. “I’m wondering if... if houses are the right way to go…? Justin mentioned that we should all have a trunk like Harry’s, with all the things in it that his does, just not the hundred-acre-space.”

“Look, if you’re going to do this, do it properly. Think big. Have both. In Potter’s trunk have the hundred-acre-space and all the other spaces. But in the other people’s trunks, only have the other spaces.” Croaker huffed.

Hermione’s eye widened. “But… that’s going to cost so much…”

“Not really.” Croaker argued. “The ready-built houses come in different sizes and configurations. Think about who’s going and what they’re going to need and choose accordingly. We’ll make the trunks, here. You’ve outlined two compartments.” Croaker tapped his finger on Hermione’s description of what she thought Harry’s trunk should be like. “We make the trunks, fit the pocket-spaces and where necessary add the charm-work. You give each person a trunk and tell them to outfit it. At the same time, the [RB](Ready-Built) house you got them will be placed inside the hundred-acre-space, in Potter’s trunk. Some of the RB’s will be warehouses, at least one each for food stuffs, for other household products, homewares, clothing, furniture, potions ingredients, greenhouses, brooms and quidditch stuff. Another will be a library with space for a classroom, as you mentioned muggleborn students, they need to finish their education. Exams don’t matter, but they need to know how to do things, how to control their magic. Another for a hospital, that’s always important. Pity you haven’t managed to get a nurse or healer on your list, but if needed, we can supply you with a pensieve and pensieve lessons.”

“Oh…”

“The RB’s vary in price, but you’re not going to need manors, small cottages will work for the most part, maybe not for the library, hospital and warehouses, but certainly for the personal houses. A standard, two bed, one bath, kitchen, laundry, living room cottage is about ʛ10,000. Expensive, but not when you consider what you get. A house that can be shrunk and moved, relocated to almost anywhere, they don’t even need a flat surface, the supports will telescope out until the house is level. Look, you said there were thirty-odd people wanting to go?”

“About that, it could go up, but that’s the base number.” Hermione hedged.

“Then get houses, at least forty of them, more if you can afford it. At least ten warehouses, the library and hospital.” Croaker advised. “That gives you some leeway in case numbers climb.”


	6. Chapter 6

_“Then get houses, at least forty of them, more if you can afford it. At least ten warehouses, the library and hospital.” Croaker advised. “That gives you some leeway in case numbers climb.”_

Hermione stood at the front of the classroom and explained to her involved shoppers, as she called those that planned on going with her and Harry.

“So… that’s where we’re at…” She finished. “Start making lists of things you want. I’ll get each group up to pick a warehouse or building to stock. I’m told that the place that does the RB’s has more than enough stock, we won’t short them. Neville? You’re first. Here’s the catalogue, pick out your dream greenhouse, like Croaker told me, think big.” It took Neville all of two minutes to choose the design he wanted and put in a request for not one but three greenhouses. “You’ll definitely get one, we’ll have to see about the others, it depends on how the budget goes, Nev.” Hermione warned. “Madam Pomfrey, you next. Your dream hospital.”

“But I’m not coming with you.” Pomfrey argued.

“So? You’re still the closest we have to an authority, at least you know what should be included.” Hermione shrugged.

“Oh, yes, that is true.” Pomfrey hurried forward and flicked through the catalogue.

One by one, each group came forward and chose a design, then each person was given the chance to choose a cottage layout. McGonagall suggested adding a large many bedroom house, saying that the younger students could stay with her in it, until they came of age, then they could move into a place of their own and she would also downsize into her own place.

“I don’t know how long it will take Croaker’s people to get all of these, but I doubt we’ll have them by the weekend. This week is all about lists and working out what we need. Once the trunks arrive, we can get started on buying up stock.” Hermione said.

“What about finances, Hermione? This is going to cost a huge amount.” Angelina asked.

“It is. But it’s not as bad as it could have been. The RB’s usually cost about ʛ10,000 each, but we’re not going have to pay all of that. The company that make them have cut the price in half because of the war. ʛ5,000. In addition to this, Harry received so many bequests after his parents died that he wouldn’t be able to spend it all in one lifetime. He told me to use it to help the students, I told him what was going on as far as the position that most of you are in, and he **_thinks_** that I’m going to get you out of the country. I am, I’m just not doing it the way he thinks. This isn’t including anything from his parents, or his godfather. Or anything received since the battle. Those of you that have finances, Harry wants you to keep them, let him pay for the resettlement. That’s his request. Mine is, the same. Exchange everything thing you can for ingots, jewellery and raw gold, silver, gems both cut and uncut stones. One of the pocket-spaces in your trunk will be a vault, use it, but let the wizarding world, via Harry, pay for everything thing else. Please?”

There was a tap at the door of the classroom and the door opened to reveal Professor Flitwick.

“Excuse me, Miss Granger, but William and Charles Weasley are here and hoping to speak to you.” The tiny Professor apologised for the interruption.

“That’s alright, Professor, I think we all need a break. Why don’t you guys get some lunch and think about it and I’ll talk to Bill and Charlie. Oh, and Professor? May I call a school elf to order some lunch for us?” As she spoke those in the room gathered up their notes and headed out, smiling at Flitwick and the two Weasley wizards as they went.

“Of course, you can, but as I am going to the kitchens, why don’t I see to that?” Flitwick was gone before she could thank him.

“Come in, guys, have a seat. What’s up? Oh we, meant to ask, how’s Ollivander doing?” She asked.

“Ah… He’s why we’re here… or a part of it.” Bill grimaced.

“And the rest?”

“Family shit.” Charlie huffed.

“Urgh.” Hermione grimaced back.

“Yeah. So, Ollivander? He’s offered to custom make a wand for Harry.” Bill started. “But he’s hoping that Harry has access to Fawkes for feathers, why, I don’t know.”

“Harry’s wand core was one of Fawkes’ feathers.” Hermione informed them.

“Oh, that makes sense, then.” Bill nodded.

“Harry’s unconscious at the moment, while the healers repair what they can, he could be out for days. But…” Hermione bit her lip, too a few deep breaths and called. **_“Fawkes? Harry needs you!”_**

Bill and Charlie looked at her like she’d grown a second head but said nothing. Seconds passed and just as Hermione was drawing a breath to sigh in resignation, there was a flash of bright light, flames and sparks. When the lightshow faded, Fawkes was resting on the back of a chair.

“Hello Fawkes. How are you?” Hermione asked.

Fawkes gave a sad trill.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, is there anything we can do to help?” She asked, even knowing that she won’t understand if there was.

Fawkes just shook his head.

“If you’re sure?” Fawkes nodded, then tilted his head in question. “Oh, Harry, right. Harry’s wand was snapped getting away from Nagini and he snapped the wand that Voldy stole from Dumbledore’s grave, he wasn’t about to let that get taken by the Ministry.” Fawkes nodded. “But that leaves Harry with no wand. Ollivander has offered to make him a custom one, but you know Harry’s going through the veil?” Another nod. “Well, that means that Harry’ not going to be able to replace a wand if something happens to it. So, he’s hoping that Ollivander would make him more than one.” Fawkes’ head rocked from side to side. “But that means he needs a number of cores and your feathers were the cores that responded to him the best. Would you consider giving him some feathers? Enough for a few wands?”

Fawkes didn’t answer, instead he shuddered and shook, and six feathers fluttered to the floor, then another shudder and two more feathers fell. Fawkes gave Hermione a tired little warble and flew over to the desk and pecked at her goblet.

“Fawkes?” Hermione asked, not understanding. Fawkes tilted his head and let Hermione see the tear building in his eye. “Oh, my, yes, of course.” She hastily pulled out her beaded bag and retrieved a small phial, holding it under the phoenix’s beak.

“Um… Hermione? I hope you’ve got another phial in that bag?” Charlie’s voice was unexpectedly sad.

“Why?”

“Phoenixes only give their tears when they’re nearing the end of their rebirth cycles. If Fawkes is giving away his tears, this is his last life. And really? He doesn’t look good, not having his familiar bonded wizard still alive, makes that worse. Take what he gives you, all of it. The older a phoenix is, the stronger the magic their feathers and tears contain.” Charlie whispered, trying not to alarm the bird.

“Oh, Fawkes, is he right?” Fawkes gave a quiet peep and dipped his head, the fat pearlescent drops still falling, one after the other into the nearly full phial. Hermione let a single tear run down her own cheek, before hastily scrubbing it away before hunting up another larger phial. “Don’t hurt yourself, Fawkes, neither Harry nor I could live with that.”

Fawkes trilled quietly.

“Alright, gentlemen, Fawkes has provided feathers for Ollivander to make into wands for Harry. And now he’s giving us his tears. Was there anything else you wanted to know?” Hermione looked up at the two Weasley’s.

“Yes.” Bill nodded. “Where’s George?”

“Up in the hospital, Katie Bell was bitten by a werewolf. We’ve asked each of them to try and keep the other from moping too much.” Hermione answered.

“Good, you need to warn him, mum’s after his shop. She wants him to sign it over to Percy.” Bill growled.

“We know. And eventually, he’s going to. But not until the day before Harry’s sentence is carried out.” Hermione replied.

“What? Why?” Both brothers gasped.

“There were survivors, from the battle here. But if the Ministry gets a hold of them, they’ll be dead or have their magic bound and their memories removed. Kingsley came up with the idea of an expanded trunk with pocket-spaces inside it and send the survivors with Harry.”

“Oh, gods.” Charlie whispered.

“Not all of them wanted this, but there’s over twenty people that have either agreed to go or asked to go. George was the first to ask. Lee, Angelina and Alicia were only a few minutes behind him.”

“George is going with Harry? But… the shop…?” Bill spluttered.

“He says the shop without Fred is nothing. Oh, he’ll keep a chunk of the stock as well as the recipes and method of making most of the products. And all the profits, Percy will take over a half-stocked shop with no money in its bank vault.” Hermione smirked and switched from the first phial to the second, carefully placing the full phial on the desk. “Will one of you stopper that for me please?”

“Sure.” Charlie stepped forward easing his way around Bill, staying in Fawkes line of sight.

“Is Harry still taking requests?” Bill asked.

“Not Harry, me. Harry doesn’t know we’re doing this. If he did, he’d try and fight for the others and that would just make things worse. But, yes, I’ll still take requests, but we’re being very careful about who we tell.” Hermione warned.

“Just Fleur. I gave her the chance to return to France when the war escalated, but she said ‘no’. Apparently, it’s a veela thing to leave your birth family and stay with your mate, for life. They may meet up one or twice, but that’s rare. They tend to just leave. But… Fleur **_is_** a veela, I’m not going to make a decision that important without consulting her.” Bill grimaced.

“Yeah, don’t be doing that.” Charlie muttered. “If you get her to agree, I’m in, too.”

“Excellent. Prepare to liquidate all your finances, but don’t worry about the cost of the move and what you’ll take with you. I’ve got that covered. Harry was left a hell of a lot of money after the first Voldy war, we’re using that to pay for this. If you go ahead and join us, I’ll get you a vault key and a card to use in the muggle world. Harry transferred gold into a vault for me to use, for after the war, this is my choice. Don’t take too long to decide, we’re down to forty-three days to prepare, I want everything ready before Harry enters the veil. And there’s a lot of work in front of us.” Fawkes lifted his head and trilled, he nudged Hermione’s hand and leapt from the desk, flying out the widow, in long tired wingbeats. Hermione stoppered the second phial and placed it beside the first. “I need to add those to our potions’ store.” She muttered.

“Assuming Fleur agrees, we’ll be joining you.” Bill said.

Five days it took before the healers released Harry from the DMLE hospital wing. Within half an hour, Hermione had briefed him on his trunk, but had not said a word about the survivors and their allies. She and Kingsley were keeping that well under wraps.

“So, can I see the trunk?” Harry whispered.

“Sure.” Hermione removed the matchbox-sized trunk from her bag and placed it on the floor, a tap of her wand and it was the size of a school trunk, a second tap and it was the height of a door. “Come on in.” She led the way into the empty trunk. “It’s completely empty, I only collected it an hour ago.” She reminded him.

“What’s where?” Harry stood in the centre of the trunk and looked around him.

“Right, that’s the entrance. So… going in a clockwise direction, you have… A potions storeroom, one side is ingredients and the other is completed potions. Next is a potions lab, that’s self-explanatory. Then it’s the first of a number of storerooms, Croaker’s people haven’t finished all of them, so you’ll just have to wait to see them. Running anti-clockwise from the entrance is a bathroom, followed by a laundry, a kitchen and a bedroom. Then here we have the library. When Luna’s finished with it, it will be amazing.”

“But just yet, it’s completely empty.” Harry nodded. “I get it.”

“The storerooms with be filled with shelves and each section of shelf will have individually applied stasis charms.”

“Individually applied? Hermione, that’s going to take you forever!” Harry exclaimed.

“Not me. The D.A. are doing it. Well, the students, the D.A. and the staff. Professor Flitwick worked with Professor Babbling on a rune sequence and the lower years are carving them into the shelves and the D.A. and the staff are activating them. They can do, roughly two hundred sections in an hour, but are limiting it to a thousand a day.”

“A thousand?” Harry gasped. “How many bloody sections are there?”

“It’s not a case of how many, it’s a case of so many people wanting to help. We’re doing many more than we plan on putting in your trunk, Harry. Just to give people a sense of involvement.” Hermione didn’t say that all of the shelving sections would be used, those not used in Harry’s trunk, would go into the hundred-acre-space, for the refugees to use. Currently the hundred-acre-space was being tentatively called Hedwig's Nest, in honour of the owl.

“Oh, hell.” Harry muttered. “This is getting out of control.”

“Don’t panic. Everything will be used. Either it will end up in here, in other trunks or be used in the reconstruction of Hogwarts and other places. Fawkes came through the other day and left you some feathers for wands. Charlie thinks that Fawkes is at the end of his rebirth cycle and if that’s the case, you’ll take anything he gives you, to refuse is an insult. Without Dumbledore to ground him, Fawkes is not likely to have long left. Respect that and be grateful for what he’s shared.” Hermione told Harry, firmly.

“Oh, Fawkes…” Harry whispered.

“Mr Ollivander will be in this afternoon, he’s moved his shop into a trunk like this one, he doesn’t feel safe on the alley anymore and no-one can blame him. He’s an old man and like McGonagall, he’s decided it’s time to retire, he’ll do a few custom wands to keep occupied but he’s closed the shop down.”

“It won’t be Diagon Alley without an Ollivander’s.” Harry whispered.

“After Mr Ollivander’s been, depending on time, Mr Twilfit and Madam Malkin will come and measure you up for clothes. Once that’s done, we’ll see to your clothes and robes. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, we’ll have something for you.” Hermione told Harry.

“That would be good, I don’t think these are going to last much longer, muggle clothes aren’t made with cleaning charms in mind.” Harry joked.

“Not really.” Hermione agreed. “A Gringotts goblin will be here in a few minutes. We need to work out what to do about your properties. Given the wards that most of them will have, Bill and Professor Flitwick suggested that it might be easier and will be a lot cheaper and quicker to just sell them all to Gringotts.” 

“What? Why? I was going to give them to people.”

“Something to do with the wards having to accept a new owner, and with no way of knowing what each ward will consider as acceptable, extracting the wards and discharging any other magics on each property is going to less of a physical risk to the new owner. And Bill seems to think if you’re going to do that, you’ll get better money selling direct to the goblins, who’ll sell them on to muggles. Then you can divide the total between the people you want, and they can buy a place with less… aggressive wards.” Hermione shrugged.

“And what do you think?” Harry leant against the wall of the trunk and studied his friend.

“Me?” Hermione blinked.

“You.” Harry nodded.

“Um…” Hermione bit her lip. “I think… sell the lot to the goblins, everything, every property, all of it. Combine the funds into one vault and parcel it out, piecemeal. Get it over with as fast as you can. Then you don’t have to think about it again. You can concentrate on working with Croaker and McGonagall on your animagi transformation.”

“Huh…” Harry grunted. “I forgot about that.”

“I know, which is why I reminded you. You’ve only got forty days, now, Harry. It’s not long. You’re going to have work hard to get the transformation in that short a timeframe, you can do it, I know you can, but you'll have to work at it. McGonagall will come in every morning and work with you, sometimes Croaker will join you, sometimes it will just be the two of you. Flitwick’s got permission to train you, as best he can in the time left, in duelling and Kingsley will a part of that and maybe a few of the trainees, too. I’ll be in every evening to give you an update and take any messages. Gringotts will contact me, for anything regarding your vaults, as per your request, and if I think you need to know, I’ll bring it to you. Okay?”

“Fine. What’s happening at Hogwarts?” Harry asked.

“Let’s go back out and sit down and I’ll tell you.” Hermione suggested and Harry nodded. The two emerged from the trunk into the interview room that was now assigned to Harry and sat down at the table. “Alright, Hogwarts. Classes are cancelled, there’ll be no exams this year, the staff and the WEA are in agreement. Snape may have been a potions genius and he also turned out to quite a… protective Headmaster, but he-”

“Protective?” Harry interrupted.

“It turns out that the Slytherins were encouraged by the Carrows to use the unforgivables on younger students, but Snape was against it, said that if one got it wrong, they’d have a dead student and nothing to use as a bargaining mark, with parents. He was against issuing detentions, instead encouraged the use of loss of privileges. Detentions, by the way were only with the Carrows and usually consisted of being their dark arts practice dummy, in private lessons for the Slytherins.”

“Oh, hell.”

“He had to walk such a fine line, between protecting the students and placating Voldy.” Hermione sighed.

“If he had lived, the public would have crucified him.” Harry sighed. “What a waste. He made a promise to my mum and he died just minutes before the payoff.”

Hermione bit her tongue, she really wanted to tell Harry that Snape had survived but the risk of someone overhearing was too great.

“Yes. So close.” She closed her eyes and begged Harry’s forgiveness for lying to him. “So, no classes, no exams. All of the students have been allowed to go home, but many have stayed. They want to be involved in the rebuilding. And helping get things ready for you. Some are helping with the rune carving, some with making potions, some in the actual rebuilding, some in the clean-up. They’re everywhere. And not just students. Parents and families, even people that don’t have kids at the school are helping. I had to place a notice in the Prophet that we weren’t ready to take meals for you, yet. People were bringing cooked meals, under stasis, to be sent with you. We sent them out to those that lost their homes. Meals and clothes have been pouring in. We’ve put aside some that we think might work for you, but once we have your measurements, we’ll have more of an idea.”

“Whoa…”

“The disaster fund handled by the Ministry has been a godsend, they’ve purchased these ready-built houses. There’s a company in Technic Alley that makes these, ready to go, shrunk and on the shelf. You can order almost anything. Most of what has been funded by the ministry is two- and three-bedroom cottages for those that lost their homes and tents for the students that want to stay at Hogwarts, but their dorms aren’t structurally safe, yet.”

“Handy.” Harry nodded.

“Very. Without them, people would be sleeping in the corridors and given that the curse-breakers are only just getting started? That would put even more people at risk.” Hermione sighed.

“How are the students taking the news? Of what’s going to happen to me?”

“None of them are happy about it, most understand and all of them support you, even some of the Slytherins. The Greengrass sisters are spending most of their time sorting through the clothes, they’re the ones that have set up a wardrobe-slash-bathroom at the school. Anyone can go in, have a shower and pick up a change of clothes, just leave the dirty change behind and they’ll see that the house-elves wash them and add them to the wardrobe. Warrington fronted up and is working with Slughorn, he’s useless at brewing, but brilliant at prep-work. Even Malfoy is helping, he’s pants at carving, but he’s excellent at activating rune sequences.”

“Wow…” Harry gasped.

“He actually asked Slughorn to formally request a meeting between him and me, I’ve no idea why, but he’s making an effort, so I’ll hear him out.” Hermione shook her head.

“Wow…” Harry repeated.

There was a knock at the door and the door opened to reveal trainee Timberly.

“Master Rocksplitter is here, Mr Potter, Miss Granger.”

“Thank you, Kristen.” Hermione smiled. “Send him in.”

“Yes’m.” The young trainee stepped back and Rocksplitter entered the room.

“Mr Potter, Miss Granger.”

“Good morning, Master Rocksplitter.” Hermione stood. “I’ll leave you with it, Harry, I have to meet Terry Boot, he's assigned to furnishing your library.” She gave Harry a brief hug. “I’ll try and pop in later this evening, but if I don’t, I’ll definitely be in, tomorrow evening.” She turned the goblin. “Master Rocksplitter, please excuse me for delaying you.” With that she left the room, heading for the Atrium.


	7. Chapter 7

_“Good morning, Master Rocksplitter.” Hermione stood. “I’ll leave you with it, Harry, I have to meet Croaker, about the other pocket-spaces.” She gave Harry a brief hug. “I’ll try and pop in later this evening, but if I don’t, I’ll definitely be in, tomorrow evening.” She turned the goblin. “Master Rocksplitter, please excuse me for delaying you.” With that she left the room, heading for the DoM._

Hermione sighed, she wasn’t looking forward to this meeting, not at all. The last two weeks had been hectic and stressful and to now have to sit through a meeting with Draco Malfoy was not something she was looking forward to.

The Ministry had finally decided to act in regard to the muggleborns and muggle-raised and Umbridge was very put out to discover that only a few of them were at the school and only one of them was she able to take into custody. The poor lass just wanted to go home, so having her core bound and her memories removed was a relief for her… and her family. The rest? Hermione had been given a heads-up by Croaker and managed to stash them all, in trunks that Croaker and his team had made for those going with Harry. Conditions were poor, but they had privacy, a bed, food and something to keep them occupied. The Unspeakables were still working on the hundred-acre pocket-space but so far, all their attempts had failed. The smaller spaces worked brilliantly, but the larger one, just wouldn’t stabilise for some reason.

The refugees were all safely stashed in a trunk that was kept in Hermione's beaded bag. The werewolf bitten were all staying with Remus in one pocket-space that was about the size of the Great Hall, large but not huge, and each of them had their own tent. The muggleborn and raised were in a second space that was much the same, with the same conditions. They were all just waiting on the big space from Croaker and they could begin to put things where they needed to, in preparation to travel.

Harry’s trunk was complete, all but that one space, Hermione had told him it was the one that was to be big enough to fly in, but that Croaker’s team hadn’t got it done, yet. She didn’t tell him that it was because of stabilisation issues and not the time issues like he was thinking.

They were running out of time, down to just twenty-two days. Twenty-two days to finalise a lot of things. To erect the RB houses and community buildings, stock and furnish them, transfer the animals and their supplies, transfer the plants, transfer in all their personal purchases and all the little incidentals that filled the pages of Hermione’s folder.

But right now, she had to deal with a Malfoy and that was one of her least favourite things.

She entered the classroom that Flitwick had refurnished and allocated to her and set her folder and bag down on the conference-type table. A tap at the door and when Hermione turned, Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway.

“Malfoy.” She nodded, keeping it firmly in mind that she was in a school and hexing the blonde prat, would bring the Headmaster’s wrath down on her.

“Granger.” Draco was quiet, a lot quieter than she expected.

“Come in and sit down.” Hermione waved to the table. “Anywhere is fine.” Seconds passed as Malfoy did as she directed. “What is this meeting about?”

Malfoy looked at his hands, his fingers resting in his lap. It took a nearly a minute for him to speak. “It started… Initially, I asked for this meeting to apologise for my actions.”

“But…?”

“But over the last two weeks that has changed.” He sighed.

“In what way?” She asked.

“I… now…” Draco bit his lip and started again. “You are placing created-spaces in a trunk for Potter.” It was not a question.

Hermione frowned. “What makes you so sure?”

“It’s the only logical way for him to take everything you’ve acquired. Trunks with expanded space can only be so large, but created-spaces don’t have the same limitations.”

“And what are you going to do, if I confirm that?”

“I have access to a very large created-space, big enough to fit Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and a large chunk of the surrounding area, inside it.”

“And…?”

“And I will give it to you, for Potter… in exchange for your… help.” He had to force out the last five words.

“Our help? Why do you need our help?”

“My father…” Draco sighed and let his head fall forward. “He’s angry…”

“At us?”

“No, at me…” 

“Why?”

“I… turned away from his lord… I stood with the students of Hogwarts…”

“And he’s angry about that?”

“Not just that.” He took a deep breath. “In the courtyard, when the dark lord called for me, I didn’t go, when my father called for me, I didn’t go, but when my mother called, I went.”

“I remember.” Hermione nodded.

“She and I turned away and left. Father had to choose between his lord and his family. It was only later that he realised that mother had chosen between him and me, that she’d walked away from him. She chose me.”

“And he doesn’t like that?”

“No, not at all. We’re locked in by the wards, only one of us can leave, one has to be inside the wards at all times. He’s using us against each other, as surety for our good behaviour. I was late in returning home, the Monday a week after the battle. I was greeted by my mother’s screams, he was using the _cruciatus_ on her, when I tried to stop him, he cast it on me.” Draco whispered, admitting weaknesses was not something he liked to do.

“Oh, god. Are you alright?” Hermione sat forward, quickly.

“Yes, thank you.” Draco nodded. “Father gave us both small doses of a de-aging potion, just enough to revert us back to our condition of prior to his curses.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not following.” Hermione frowned again.

“De-aging potion, is as it sounds, a potion that de-ages someone, it removes days or hours that they’d lived from their bodies, making them younger.”

“But the _cruciatus_ also affects your mind and I wasn’t aware that a de-aging potion could alter that?”

“A normal version, probably not, but father has a modified version that Severus made, it’s a combination of de-aging potion and a stabilising potion. It has to be used sparingly, as it’s completely irreversible but it will repair any damage done within a range of time. That time is determined by the dosage taken. He’s only got so much of it left and the dark lord obliviated Severus, who was the only person to know the recipe.”

“Oh, my. Just a moment.” Hermione quickly made a note in the inside of her folder. “I’d like more information about that, but that can wait. Back to you and your father. He _crucio_ -ed you and your mother, gave you both this de-aging potion and what next?”

“And that’s been our life, ever since. Each day, I return home to her screams, am _crucio_ -ed, potioned and each morning it starts over.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“Help me. Help me get my mother out. Help **_me_** get out. I’ve talked to her about it and we both agreed. You get us out, you can have the pocket-space.” Draco said, bluntly.

“And where will you go?”

“Does it matter?” Draco shrugged.

“Yes. Getting you out, only to have your father track you down and drag you back. No, it has to be better than that.”

“Father’s got contacts all over the world, I… I’m not sure there is anywhere that we can go, where he won’t eventually find us. But if you can get us out of the mansion, we stand a chance.”

“Has you mother got any training, other than Hogwarts?”

“She’s completed part of her potions’ mastery, to the journeyman level. And is a fully certified healer…?” It came out as question.

Hermione sat up, her head lifting sharply. “Your mother’s a healer? A fully qualified healer?”

“Yes.” Draco answered and was nearly blinded by the brightness of Hermione’s smile. She was no longer the bushy-haired bucktoothed know-it-all mudblood that he’d tried to get the better of, and failed, but a strong, intelligent and very pretty witch. Pretty? When had **_that_** changed and why hadn’t Draco seen it before?

A smirk slid across Hermione’s face, making Draco squirm in discomfort. “You want out, I can get you out, I can even get you somewhere that your father will **_never_** find you. But…”

“But…?”

“There’s no way back.”

“I… I don’t… I don’t understand…” Draco frowned, slightly.

“I want an oath, Malfoy… Draco… that what I tell you, you will not pass along to anyone, in any way, unless I give you permission to tell a specific person.” Hermione leant forward, her hands on the table.

“An oath? Why?”

“The lives of nearly forty people would be forfeited, if this were to get out. No, I go no further without an oath.”

“What type of oath?” Draco asked.

“You will swear on your life and magic that you will not pass this information along, nor will you discuss this information with anyone that I do not specifically name. The oath is only until the 19th of June, after that it won’t matter anymore.” Hermione said.

Draco tilted his head and thought about it. Was getting his mother and himself free of his father, worth it? He sighed. Yes, it was.

“I, Draconis Lucius Malfoy, do swear upon my life and magic that I shall not deliberately inform anyone of the information I am provided within this room, nor shall I speak of this matter to anyone not named by Hermione Granger, before the 19th of June, this year. As I swear, so shall it be.” A glow of white light surrounded Draco, slowly fading away.

“Excellent. The students that Umbridge was trying to find, are being hidden in expanded trunks and as soon as the Unspeakables build me a one-hundred-acre pocket-space or you give me the one you mentioned, they’ll be moving into it. The night before Harry enters the veil, I’ll be putting that pocket-space in Harry’s trunk. They’ll be going with him… and so will I. At present we have over twenty-five people that will be going. Mostly students, but a few adults.”

“And the Unspeakables really said that the veil will send him… somewhere else?” Draco asked.

“Yes.”

“Do they know where?”

“Not exactly. The people who entered the veil never returned. But people **_have_** emerged from it. They just weren’t from our world.” Hermione told the blonde man.

“From our **_world?!”_** Draco gasped.

“Yes, our world. From what those people told the Unspeakables, they came from different places, maybe the one world, but certainly from different areas, possibly different countries. The problem is that from what they describe, their world or worlds are pre-industrial.”

“Pre-industrial? And that means… what, exactly?”

“No factories, nothing mass produced.” Hermione explained. “A lot like the wizarding world but without magic, they had to do everything by hand or using hand driven tools.”

“And that’s where they think Potter will go?”

“Yes.”

“Will he still have access to his magic?”

“The Unspeakables believe so. Of the nine people that have emerged from the veil, seven of them either knew what a wizard was or knew one personally.” Hermione answered.

“Well, that’s something, I suppose.” Draco sighed. “But what has where Potter’s going got… to do… ….” He trailed off as he figured it out. “You’re suggesting mother and I join Potter.”

“Not just Harry, but me and almost thirty others.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge.

“You’re putting thirty-odd people in a trunk and you want my mother and I to join you. A trunk that Potter is going to take with him, when he enters the veil.” The blonde summarised.

“Yes.” Hermione agreed, matter-of-factly.

“But how do you plan to get us both out of the mansion? And what of our possessions?”

“I’ll provide each of you with a vault key and a trunk,” knowing that the Malfoys wouldn’t shop in the muggle world, she didn’t mention a muggle credit-type card. “It’s slightly expanded and has a number of pocket-spaces in it. A vault, a library, clothes storage, personal effect storage, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, laundry. A greenhouse, if you want it, a potions’ lab, ingredient stores. All the comforts of home in a trunk. The only catch is, the house-elves say they can’t go, something to do with being a self-cursed species. I’m not sure, but not one elf would consider it, not even the Black family elf that Harry inherited from his godfather.” Hermione shook her head to drag her focus back to the question at hand. “Go shopping, get clothes, toiletries, books, everything you can think of, and don’t forget the brooms. When you’re happy that you’ve got everything, exchange the contents of the Malfoy vaults for gold ingots, jewellery and gems. Rocksplitter is handling most of the exchanges.”

“You’re giving us a vault key?” Draco gasped. “Are you mad? We could empty the vault!”

“Not a chance, not even you could do that.” Hermione laughed.

“You’re funding all of the… What are you calling those that are going?”

“They’re calling themselves ‘refugees’, as they’re seeking refuge in Harry’s trunk.”

“Refugees? Refugees… Huh. Not the most pleasant of names.”

“You come up with something better and they might use it, at the moment, it’s the best of a bad bunch.” Hermione grimaced.

“Refugees, ugh.” Draco screwed up his nose. “Refugees. You’re funding the refugees? All of them?”

“Yes, Harry was left massive amounts of gold and property after the last war, but he wants nothing to do with it. He thinks he’s leaving it to me. I’ve taken as much as I’m comfortable with and the rest is being used to fund the refugees and anything that’s leftover… and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that even then, we’ll have spent less than half… Anything left will be exchanged for non-money valuables and divided up amongst us all.”

“How **_much_** was there?” Draco’s eyes widened. “If funding thirty people in a complete resettlement was only **_half_** , how much was the total?”

“I kept ʛ5 million for myself, put ʛ10 million in refugee accessible vault. So far we haven’t spent it all.” Hermione shrugged.

“ʛ15 million is **_half?”_** Draco was almost speechless.

“Pretty much.”

“Oh, good grief.” The wizard huffed. “You’re funding us, and you plan to split any leftover between us all. Yeah, fine, we’re… Huh… I was about to say we’re in, but… how do we get out of the manor? We have to do that, before we can join you.”

“Same way I got around in third year. A time turner. When you’re both ready to go, your mother leaves the mansion at… let’s say midday, meets me or Professor McGonagall, who’s coming too. You wait a few minutes, maybe five or ten, find a remote part of the mansion where you won’t be noticed, use the time turner to turn back to, say, eleven-thirty, leave the property and meet me and your mother. There’ll be no alerts in the wards as the ‘unturned’ version of you is still present within the mansion, when your mother leaves.” Hermione added the clarification.

“And father won’t know what to do. He’ll check the wards and they’ll say that mother and I left at eleven-thirty and twelve o’clock, but the wards will still register me as being there when mother left, even though they also register me has having left a half hour before her.” Draco smiled back. “Oh, very nice, very nice indeed.” He tilted his head. “With a mind like yours, how did you avoid Slytherin?”

“Muggleborn. The hat said my mind belonged in Slytherin, but that the rest of me was a lion.” Hermione gave him a cheeky grin.

“Oh, hell… I don’t…” He sighed. “When? When does this have to happen by?”

“I want everyone but me and maybe three or four others, to be in the trunk ready to go, on the evening of the 15th of June. That gives you a little less than twenty days. Come and see me tomorrow afternoon, bring the pocket-space and I’ll have the time turner and a schedule for you. McGonagall’s teaching us all how to be animagi, you can slot into a session, whenever you’ve time. Use the time turner as much as you like to go shopping, same for your mother, but for Merlin’s sake don’t let your father find it.”

“ ** _That_** would be a disaster in the offering.” Draco agreed.

“Other than that, just touch base with me, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey or George Weasley, every other day, please.” Hermione requested.

“That I can do. Who am I permitted to tell and who may I discuss this with?”

“Ah. You can tell your mother and only her. To discuss this with? Myself, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Madam Pomfrey, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, George Weasley, Garrick Ollivander, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Fleur Delacour-Weasley, Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. At this point. There are a few more, but until you move in with us, it’s safer for you and them, if you don’t know who they are, they’re considered dead and we definitely don’t want the Ministry to suspect that they’re not. If there’s someone that you think we should include tell me and we’ll consider it.”

“That’s quite a… Gryffindor selection.”

“In the ones not mentioned, we have lions, snakes, eagles and even a lone badger. We don’t care what a person’s house was, if they need help, we’ll do our best to help them. Oh, and Ollivander will custom make wands for everyone, we want everyone to have preferably four wands, to have backups in case of breakages.”

“Always a good idea.” Draco nodded. “Any idea on how long we’ll be inside Potter’s trunk? God, that sounds so… wrong.”

Hermione laughed. “I’m sure you’re not the only to think that. We haven’t really decided yet. We all feel he should be given some time to assess the situation before we spring out of the trunk at him, but how long is… we’re divided. Some are saying hours, other days, while Bill and S- one of the assumed-dead people, think we should give him up to a month.”

“How do you plan to get Potter to open the trunk? Or can you open it from the inside?”

“I figure a Patronus message is obvious. ‘Open the bloody trunk, Harry’, should do it.” Hermione imitated a screeching Molly Weasley.

Draco burst into laughter. “Oh, I’d love to see his reaction.”

“We’re taking a pensieve…” Hermione said in a sing-song voice with a bright smile.


	8. Chapter 8

_“How do you plan to get Potter to open the trunk? Or can you open it from the inside?”_

_“I figure a Patronus message is obvious. ‘Open the bloody trunk, Harry’, should do it.” Hermione imitated a screeching Molly Weasley._

_Draco burst into laughter. “Oh, I’d love to see his reaction.”_

_“We’re taking a pensieve…” Hermione said in a sing-son voice with a bright smile._

“Hermione? You’re ‘elping ‘Arry, right?” Hagrid asked. “Minerva said you’s sendin’ some stuff wif him?” 

“Yes, I am, Hagrid.” Hermione was exiting the Great Hall as the half-giant was entering.

“Come down an see me, will ya? I’m… I got… jest come see me… in-a hour.” Hagrid stomped up the aisle to the staff table.

“Right…” Hermione sighed.

“Hermione?” Angelina appeared at Hermione’s side, a notepad in her hands. “Quick update?”

“Sure. Um… let’s use the Muggle Studies classroom, I don’t feel like climbing five floors only to have to come back down in minutes.” The two young women walked from the Entrance Chamber through the Turris Magnus and into the Castle Keep and then to the ground floor classroom. “Okay, gimme a second.” Hermione dug into her beaded bad and drew out her folder and a pencil. “Fire away.”

“Terry’s finished with Harry’s library and gone to help Luna, Padma, Parvati and Fleur on the Nest’s. He's given his oath and is prepared to be obliviated, if we want.” Angelina made a mark at the beginning of a line. “Charlie and Lavender have finished Harry’s storeroom and have gone on to stocking the Nest warehouses with Dean and Seamus. Neville has the greenhouses up and running. Malfoy, Bill and Oliver have Harry’s potions lab and storerooms done and Bill and Neville have started on the Nest’s ingredient storage. George brought a load of brooms in from Cleansweep, Nimbus, Spudmore and he’s done the rounds of all the second-hand shops for quidditch gear, Katie’s seeing to all that. Ollivander has moved into his place, Bill mentioned something about a lost wand room and George wants you to check with Harry about its location. Harry’s wardrobe is ready, we know he prefers simple stuff, but we did get a few formal robes, we have no idea if he’ll ever need them, but better safe than sorry. The kitchen and bedroom are the only things left to do in Harry’s trunk, and they’re on the schedule, so the rest of us are concentrating on the Nest for now.” Angelina tilted her head. “You know, I never thought I’d say it, but thank Merlin for Malfoy. His pocket-space is amazing.”

“Yes, two-hundred-fifty-acres its quite a bit bigger than what Croaker was trying to make us.” Hermione nodded. “And the fact that it’s old means the interior environment is well established and the whole thing is runically stable.”

“Whoever laid it out inside, covered everything. Grassland, forest, mountains and a lake with a beach.” Angelina smiled. “Something for everyone, even a quidditch pitch.”

“Don’t go exploring yet, the Nest isn’t fully stocked yet.” Hermione warned.

“No, but we’re getting there. We’ve fifteen days left, we’ll be ready.” Angelina assured the younger woman.

“I know we will. Now, have you had lunch?”

“No, not yet, I’m going to join Katie and Alicia for a sandwich and take half an hour to have a quick game of ‘chase the chaser’.” Angelina grinned and bounced away.

“Right. Harry’s trunk, all but… The bedroom, which is… um… Oliver and Justin. And Justin’s on muggle shopping tomorrow. And the kitchen, which is Alicia and Hannah, with Oliver driving. So, that’s likely to be Thursday. Excellent.”

“Talking to yourself, Granger?” An amused voice sounded from the hall.

“Of course, Malfoy, who else would I talk to if I wanted an intelligent conversation?” Hermione shot back.

Draco laughed and with a wave headed for the Grand Staircase.

Hermione snorted turned back to her folder. “Brooms, yes. Everything else is in progress. Oh, and a note to ask Harry about the wands. Great, that’s as much as I can tick off, right now. Hagrid. I wonder what he wants. Oh, I hope it’s not another books, the Monster Book of Monsters in third year was-” she cut herself off and darted out of the room, her folder clasped tightly in one hand.

 **“ _Malfoy! MALFOY!”_** She yelled, making a few people smile, that was the Hermione Granger most of them remembered.

Draco paused, his foot lifted to step off the first landing and onto the second flight of stairs, he was headed for the third floor and the transfiguration classroom, when he heard the yelling. He spun in place and took one step before he saw the owner of the voice, doing her best to sprint up the stairs.

“Granger? You yelled?” He didn’t know whether to be alarmed **_for_** her or **_by_** her.

“It just occurred to me.” She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off the stairs and into the second-floor corridor.

“What?” Draco frowned.

“What are the chances that you can snatch a Malfoy library?” She asked, speaking quickly. “We’ve got the Potter library, the Black library, Dumbledore’ personal library, McGonagall’s personal library, Bill’s curse-breakers books and Ollivander’s personal library. The Old Bookshelf have given us a copy of everything they had in stock. Neville’s given us the Longbottom’s Heir library. And everyone else is bringing their books. Can you get us the Malfoy Heir’s library?”

Draco smirked. “Forget about the Heir’s library, I can get you the main Malfoy library.”

Hermione’s smirk matched his. “In that case, get me both.”

“Your wish is my command, my lady.” Draco gave her an ostentatious bow.

“Really…?” Her smirk became downright devious. “Oh, if only that were true…”

“What do you want…?” He wasn’t all that certain he wanted to know.

“I want that de-aging potion, I’ve at least two people who would benefit from it and there’s a possibility that another one might be able to reverse engineer the recipe from it, if they have the actual potion in front of them.” Hermione replied.

“You don’t want much, do you?” Draco sighed. “I’ll do my best, but I might not get it until it’s time to go.”

She dropped the humour and spoke quietly. “If you **_can_** get it, I’d very much appreciate it, Draco.”

“I’ll do my best.” Draco nodded back towards the stairs. “You’d best get back to it and McGonagall’s expecting me.”

Hermione smiled at the blonde and took his suggestion. Down the stairs, through the quad, under the clock tower and across the suspended bridge that was the temporary replacement for the covered bridge that was the access to the owlery and Hagrid’s newly rebuilt hut. As expected, Hagrid sat on a stump outside his hut, a huge knife in his hands along with a piece of wood that he was obviously carving.

“Hagrid.” Hermione smiled as she reached the giant.

“Ello ‘Ermione. Thanks fer comin’.”

“It’s fine, Hagrid. I’m sorry I haven’t been down, but I only have a limited amount of time and so much to get done.” Hermione apologised.

“No need fer sorries. Yer doing it fer ‘Arry.”

“I am. What did you need me for?”

“Yer sendin’ things with ‘im? Right?”

“Yes…?” Hermione answered slowly.

“Can yer put sommit in fer me?”

“That depends on what it is?”

“See, it’s Beaky. He turned up here a few months back, but Dumbledore had got me a new stallion, and he’s not liking Beaky. It’s split the herd up, some of the original mares are related to Beaky and won’t breed with ‘im, but the newer mares don’t like the new stallion, he’s a bit aggressive. Only ‘cause Beaky’s here an’ he thinks he needs to protect ‘is mares.” Hagrid hurriedly added the last sentence.

“You want me to send Buckbeak with Harry?” Hermione blinked.

“An’ his mares… an a coupla foals… an’ maybe a nestin’ mare… or two…” Hagrid rambled.

“ _Hagrid…”_ Hermione whined.

“I can’t keep ‘em all, ‘Ermione. Professor Flitwick says I can ‘ave one herd, no more than a dozen of ‘em.” Hagrid sighed. “Beaky was me foundation stallion, the whole herd was based around ‘im. But other than me younger mares, all of ‘em are Beaky’s foals or ‘is foal’s foals. I haven’t put ‘im in fer breeding fer a few years, ‘cause of it. Then Black stole Beaky and-”

“Actually, he didn’t.” Hermione cut in.

“Wha’?”

“Harry and I stole Beaky to save him from being executed and then we sent him with Sirius.” Hermione grimaced.

“Oh, okay…” Hagrid grunted.

“Keep going.” Hermione waved her hand in a rolling gesture.

“Right, ya sent ‘im with Black. Dumbledore got me a new stallion, Firecrest’s younger and weren’t related ter any of the mares I ‘ad then. And jus’ afore he died, Dumbledore got me another group of mares, young-uns that ‘ad been badly treated. They was settling in alright, not great, but alright… when Beaky flies back in.”

“Ah…”

“Yeah…” Hagrid nodded. “The next few weeks were…. Beaky and Firecrest tryin’ ter fight. Firecrest tryin’ ter woo his ladies an’ Beaky tryin’ ter do the same. The older mares ignoring Beaky for Firecrest. The younger mares liking Beaky. And I ended up with two ‘erds. I had ter split ‘em up, Beaky and ‘is herd are down are down near the station and Firecrest is just back of me hut. And that caused another problem.”

“Another…?”

“Yes’m, Beaky’s not talking ter me, he’s insulted that I moved ‘im an’ ‘is ladies so far away and let ‘is rival have the prime nesting sites.”

“Oh, hell…” Hermione moaned. “And you expect me to convince them to enter a trunk? Beaky, his mares, some foals and a nesting mare? Hagrid!”

“No, no, no. I talked ter Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall abouts it and they think the best thing ter do is ter knock ‘em out and transfigure ‘em ter be statues, until ‘Arry is somewhere ‘e can uncharm ‘em.”

Hermione tilted her head in thought.

“Then I asked iffen they could be shrunk. They’d take up less space.”

“Oh, I know… Hold on.” Hermione dug into her ever-present bag and retrieved a pencil and tore off a sheet of notepaper, she scribbled on it for a few minutes before handing it the half-giant. “A chess set, with Buckbeaks’s herd as the pieces on one side.”

“I can make a chess board fer ‘Arry. But… what abouts the other side?”

“Use the staff.” Hermione took back the paper and wrote a few more lines and showed it to Hagrid.

“Oh. Oh, I see… but… Where’s Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore? Shouldn’t they be on this list?” Hagrid asked.

“Probably, but Professor Dumbledore’s left Harry other things and Professor McGonagall is teaching him how to become an Animagus. He’ll never forget them. But the other Professors are a little more distant, this will give him something to remember them by.”

“An’ what about me? What have I given him? An owl that’s bin killed an’ a moksekin pouch.” Hagrid mumbled.

“Hagrid, as far as Harry is concerned, it was you that introduced him to magic, it was you that told him he was a wizard, it was you that took him to Diagon for the first time. You ask what have you given him? To Harry, you’ve gave him his first ever gift, Hedwig, you gave him magic and now you’re giving him Buckbeak. There’s no chance he will ever forget you, every spell he does, he’ll remember you. Every time he sees Beaky, he’ll remember you. But if you feel the need to give him something, find a pair of pure white owl feathers and get Scribulus’ to put a quill grip on them, every time he writes something, he’ll remember you.”

“I can do tha’. Actually… I might even have a couple from ‘is ‘Edwig.” Hagrid began to smile again.

“There you go.” Hermione patted his huge hand. “I’ll talk to Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall, find out how they’d do this, if it’s safe and how long Harry can keep them for. Oh, and if you could do three sets of figures all up? One set to represent the students, one set of magical creatures and one set to be the staff and Beaky’s herd to be transfigured into a white wood, as the fourth. If Harry wants to, he can use any two sets, at any time.” She took back the sheet of notepaper and added a few more lines of writing to it before flicking her wand and copying the list to a second sheet. “There, one for you and one for me to take to the Professors and Harry.”

| 

**White Wood = Hippogriffs**

| 

**Black Wood = Hogwarts Staff**

| 

**Gold Wood = Magical Animals**

| 

**Red Wood = Students**  
  
---|---|---|---|---  
  
King

| 

Buckbeak

| 

James Potter

| 

Fawkes

| 

Ron Weasley  
  
Queen

| 

Nest of eggs

| 

Lily Potter

| 

Hedwig

| 

Susan Bones  
  
2 x Rooks

| 

2 yearlings (dark coats)

| 

Moody and Kingsley

| 

Horntail dragon, Basilisk 

| 

Stephen Cornfoot, Anthony Goldstein  
  
2 x Bishops

| 

2 yearlings (pale coats)

| 

Slytherin and Gryffindor

| 

Dobby, Kreacher

| 

Kellah Lindstrom, Fay Dunbar  
  
2 x Knight

| 

2 mares

| 

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff

| 

Fang, Crookshanks

| 

Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass  
  
8 x Pawns

| 

8 newly hatched foals

| 

Professors Babbling, Vector,

Sinistra, Flitwick, Slughorn, Binns,

Sprout and Hooch

| 

Post Owls

| 

Astoria Greengrass, Su Li, Hannah Abbot,

Kevin Entwhistle, Terry Boote, Michael

Corner, Ernest Macmillan, Mandy Brocklehurst  
  
“Oh, yeah, tha’s good. But… Ron?” Hagrid asked.

“Ron… He’s not… he’s not handling this well. Loosing Fred… he’s not blaming Harry, but he’s pretty cut up about it. And then Harry’s trial? No, Ron’s not handling this well. Oh, don’t fret, he’ll come ‘round, he always does. But it might be too late for him to give Harry something.” Hermione hedged. She didn’t want to badmouth Ron, not when he was staying, and she wasn’t. Ron wasn’t a bad person, he was just spoilt and had the emotional range of a teaspoon, he’d eventually grow out of it.

“Ah, I sees what ya mean.” Hagrid nodded. “Well, I've got some pretty woods I kin use. A nice piece o' Redheart fer the students. Some Bog Oak for the staff. And a real bright bit of Canarywood fer the other Animals. I best get to it. Times tickin’ away.”

“Exactly.” Hermione nodded. “So, I had better get moving, too. I need to speak to Professors McGonagall and Flitwick and, depending on what they say, to Harry.” She stood and after giving Hagrid a quick hug, trotted back towards the castle.

“Hey, Kristen.” Hermione greeted the trainee at the door to they were calling ‘Harry’s room’.

“Evening, Miss Granger.” Kristen grinned back.

“You know you’re allowed to call me Hermione, don’t you?”

“Not while on duty, Miss Granger.” Kristen Timberly shook her head.

“But-”

“Don’t want people complaining about us being too familiar, we’re only trainees so we have to keep it professional.”

“Hmph.” Hermione huffed.

Kristen just smiled and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Harry called out, his voice obviously tired. Kristen opened the door and gestured for Hermione to enter.

“Thanks.” Hermione gave her a small nod and crossed to give Harry a hug. “Harry, you look tired.”

“Nice to see you too, Hermione.” Harry mock-glared at her.

“Oh, bite me, Harry.” Hermione snarked back at him.

“You been hanging around Malfoy too much.” Harry sighed.

“Harry…” Hermione warned.

“Okay, okay. Sorry. Yes, I’m tired. I did my first full Animagus shift this morning and then Robards put me through the Gauntlet this afternoon.” Harry admitted.

“Whoa… Really? You did a full transformation?”

Harry smiled and shook his head in amusement. “You’re not at all interested in the fact that I did the Gauntlet at seventeen.”

“Harry, I have no idea what the Gauntlet is. So, no, I’m not interested.”

“You should be, the Gauntlet is what everyone who completes their Auror training has to go through to graduate from a trainee to active duty.” Harry said smugly. “Most people are in their mid-twenties before they complete it, to the head Auror's satisfaction.”

“And you did it?” Hermione’s eyes widened.

“Yep. Well within the time allowed. Tonks was the youngest trainee of this century, to finish, and I cut her time by three minutes and I did it four years younger than she was when she made her first attempt.”

“Well… huh… How about that. What did Kingsley say?”

“After he picked his jaw up off the floor?” Harry asked and Hermione laughed.

“He took it that well, huh?”

“Yup.” Harry gave her a cheeky grin. “What’s happening out in the magical world?”

“You do know that you’re allowed to go out, don’t you?”

“Yes, Hermione, I know, but the last few trips were… I didn’t like the way people were staring and whispering, it felt… It felt like second year and the first few days after the duelling club incident.”

“Urgh.”

“Yeah, so I’m sticking to the muggle world for most of my outings. Had lunch out with McGonagall, today, that was an interesting experience.”

“Really? Where did you go?” There was so much she didn’t know about the people around her.

“The Clarence, it’s an upscale pub on Whitehall, near the Horse Guards.”

“Ooh, on the corner of Great Scotland Yard?”

“Yeah, that’s the place. They do the **_best_** sweet potato chips.” Harry sighed. “With this sweet and spicy dipping thing. So good.” He shook his head. “Back to the magical world. What’s happening?”

Hermione smiled. “We’re still working. There’s only the kitchen and your bedroom to go in the trunk, I hope to get that done over the weekend, but no promises. The Curse-breakers have finished work on the castle keep and have started on the DADA Tower and the Viaduct Towers. There wasn’t as much fighting in them, so Professor Flitwick’s hopeful it won’t take long. The greenhouses are all repaired, not fully stocked yet, but at least they’re all in one piece. The Bell Towers, The Clock Tower and the hospital wing have been cleared of having any curses in them, which is great, we can start rebuilding them. Ravenclaw Tower is still not safe, but Gryffindor Tower is open. Slytherin is still off limits, as is Hufflepuff, the dungeons took a few bad hits, apparently. The Entrance Bridge is finally down, there were a few scary moments when one of the Curse-breakers lost his footing and took a tumble, but Professor Sinistra caught him before he fell more than a few feet. They're putting a timber suspension bridge there, until the rest of the castle is done.” She paused. “There’s one thing I was asked to talk to you about.”

“Yeah…?”

“Hagrid’s got a problem.”

Harry closed his eyes. Hagrid having a problem was never a good thing. “What is it?” He grimaced.

“Buckbeak.”

“Excuse me?”

“Buckbeak turned up. Apparently when Dumbledore died, the wards he put in place to keep Buckbeak in Grimmauld Place failed. Buckbeak headed back to Hagrid.” Hermione started. “But in the meantime Hagrid…” She went on to explain the situation of the two herds and Flitwick’s direction to Hagrid. “…so, he has to get rid of his older stallion and a herd of abused mares or a younger stallion and an established herd. Either way, he’s going to lose about forty animals.”

“Oh, no, poor Hagrid, they’re like his babies.” Harry moaned in sympathy for his friend.

“He… He… He wants me to send some with you.” Hermione hesitated before finishing.

“Me? But… Why…? **_How?!”_** Harry gasped.

“I didn’t bring this to you until I’ll checked it out. Professors Flitwick and McGonagall believe they can stun, stasis and transfigure some of the hippogriffs into chess pieces, for you to reverse later. Not all of them, but some.”

Harry tilted his head in confusion. “Why not all? If they’re going to do that, why not all of them?”

“A few reasons. One, the Ministry know about them, but not how many there are, so they’re going to be watching to see that Hagrid does sell some. Two, some of the mares won’t accept Buckbeak as their stallion, they’re too closely related. Three, there’s too many males in the yearling foals, we can possibly sneak in a couple of non-related colt-foals or unhatched eggs that test as being male, but not yearling males, Buckbeak will see them as rivals.”

“Oh, right, didn’t think about that.” Harry grimaced before frowning. “But that’s still going to leave a small herd and eventually it’s going to get smaller and then there’s inbreeding and… I don’t know, Hermione, I don’t want to put one down because of they’re too closely bred.”

“You won’t have to Harry. Just go get yourself common horse or a hawk, transfigure it to a hippogriff and you’ll have a new bloodline.” Hermione shook her head at him. “That’s how hippogriffs were first created. And a transfigured hippogriff breeds true, exactly the same as a hatched hippogriff, they're magical creatures, after all.”

“Oh…” Harry blinked a few times. “Okay… I can do that.”

“Great, I’m going to put them in the smaller compartment of the trunk.” She felt that this was going to be less trouble than trying to get Buckbeak out of the pocket-space Nest and it would give Harry something to look forward to.

“Talking of…? What’s going in that?” Harry asked curious about it. It was the highlight of his day, getting these little snippets about the mysterious ‘trunk’.

“Oh, um…” Hermione had to dig into her bag to find her folder. “Right. Um… One set of battle robes. Half a dozen changes of muggle clothes and the same of wizarding. A muggle first aid kit and a few potions, not a full medi-kit, just a few basics. A broom. A stasis kitchen pantry. And the chess set.” She turned the folder so Harry could see the list.

“Great, and wasn’t there a bag mentioned?”

“Yes, there was. That will have a travel lunchbox, it holds five meals. A wizard’s tent. A change of clothes, muggle based. A journal. A blanket. And a plain cloak. The tent has to be empty to be transported, unfortunately, but that’s why we added pocket-spaces to a trunk.”

“Brilliant.” He paused. “Anything from Ron, yet?” Harry asked hesitantly.

Hermione sighed. “Not yet. Bill was going to talk to the family tonight and find out what’s going on. I should have an update tomorrow.”

“I hope so. Dudley sent me a letter, via Mrs Figg, he wants to meet with me.” Harry focused on the table.

“Are you going to?”

“I… I… I think I need to. I’m never going to see them again and while I won’t miss Vernon, I’m not quite so sure about Petunia and Dudley.” Harry rubbed at his knuckles. “Will… If… Will you come with me if I do?”


	9. Chapter 9

_“Brilliant. Anything from Ron, yet?” Harry asked hesitantly._

_Hermione sighed. “Not yet. Bill was going to talk to the family tonight and find out what’s going on. I should have an update tomorrow.”_

_“I hope so. Dudley sent me a letter, via Mrs Figg, he wants to meet with me.” Harry focused on the table._

_“Are you going to?”_

_“I… I… I think I need to. I’m never going to see them again and while I won’t miss Vernon, I’m not quite so sure about Petunia and Dudley.” Harry rubbed at his knuckles. “Will… If… Will you come with me if I do?”_

Harry clutched Hermione’s hand, as they stood watching as his cousin entered the café. Dudley walked carefully across the room and stopped a few feet from them.

“Hello…” He said, in the same slow, slightly confused manner that had become normal for him, after the dementor attack.

“Hey, Big D.” Harry gave him a half-hearted smile and fell silent.

“Shall we sit down?” Hermione gestured to a table and some chairs.

“Can we sit in a booth?” Dudley asked.

“Sure.” Hermione nodded and exchanged a quick glance with a tense Harry. Harry nodded and the three moved to the back of the café, Hermione slid into the booth first and Harry followed, while Dudley sat awkwardly opposite them.

“What’s up, D?” Harry asked.

“Can you do those shields, the ones that people can’t see or hear through?”

“I can.”

“Can you do one now? Please?”

“Why would I do that?” Harry asked, not sure why his cousin wanted him to do it. Dudley took his baseball cap off and Harry’s breath caught. He let his wand flick into his hand, and he cast a _muffliato_. “Who hit you, Dudley?” His voice was low, angry. One side of Dudley's face, from the cheekbone up, was a violent dark purple and green bruise that had been camouflaged by the shadows that his cap had made.

“Dad…” Dudley's voice was even quieter. “Can you put up a shield?”

“I put up a version of a shield, people can still see us, but they’ll only hear us mumbling.” Harry said.

“Thank you…” Dudley closed his eyes for a moment. “We left with that man and a lady.” He started and Harry nodded. “They took us to somewhere up north, we went through London and out the other side, but I don’t remember where.” He shrugged. “The man was boring, but the lady kept trying to talk to us, only… dad wouldn’t let her. He’d get angry and yell at her. I woke up one night, I’d dreamed about the dementy-thingies, again. In the kitchen, she made me some hot chocolate, it was really good, and we talked about you and magic. She told me about the things you could do and how you learn at your school. She gave me some books to read, said it would help me understand. We waited and waited, and finally someone sent us message. A glowing silver tiger that could talk, it told us that the war was over, that you’d won.”

“We did.” Harry nodded.

“We came home, and things went back to normal.” Dudley paused. “Then last week the power went out. I’d been writing a letter, to send to you, when it happened. I wondered what you’d do if you were there. One of the books that Miss Hestia gave me, had a spell for making a light. I thought about it and pointed at my lamp and imagined lighting it.”

“Oh, dear…” Hermione whispered.

“The lamp didn’t change, but my finger lit up.” Dudley opened his jacket and put his hand inside it. “ _Lumos.”_ He whispered and his finger glowed, just barely, but it glowed.

“Whoa…” Harry exclaimed silently.

“I finished my letter and took it to the cat lady, Miss Hestia said that the cat lady could get a letter to you.” Dudley let his head fall forward. “I practised every day, just like Miss Hestia said you had to, I can't make it bright, not yet. But…” 

“But…?” Harry asked, he had an idea where this was going.

“But dad found out. I thought it was just you he hated, but it’s anybody that can do this. He screamed, mum screamed, he hit me, mum fainted, he dragged me out the back of the house and told me to get out and not come back. That he was not having magic in the house. But he didn’t call it magic, he called it freakishness.” A tear ran down his face. “I went to the cat lady and she’s letting me stay on her couch, but she’s only renting, and her landlady won’t let me stay for long.” He looked up. “Please? Please can you help? I have nowhere to go.”

“Oh gods.” Harry whispered.

“Let’s have a cup of tea and something to eat and we’ll talk about what you want.” Hermione said.

“I want somewhere to live, and I want to learn more magic.” Dudley said.

“We can help you with that.” Hermione nodded.

“We can?” Harry asked.

“Yes, Harry we can.” She nodded. “Let’s have lunch and then you can go and meet with Kingsley and I’ll help Dudley. There’s a couple of options, there’s the house in Chester and a flat in Stockport, that haven't been sold yet. Magic’s a little more involved, I’ll need to talk to Dudley a bit more, but… yeah, there’s a couple of options.”

“Okay, then. You work out what needs to happen and let me know what I need to do about it. Okay?” Harry looked his friend.

“I got this, Harry. You worry about what Kingsley’s going to put you through this afternoon.”

“Oh, gods, I know exactly what going to make me do. He wants to see how I’ll on the senior version of the Gauntlet.” Harry moaned.

“Oh, good luck.” Hermione grinned and turned back to Dudley. “Let’s eat, then Harry can go back to his training and you and I can have a talk.”

“Okay.” Dudley tried to smile but he wasn’t very successful.

Six hours later, Hermione entered Harry’s interview room. “Hi.” She said as she slumped into a chair.

“Hey.” He replied looking as tired as she felt. “How’d you go with Dud, no trouble?”

“Not really. Not that he **_caused_** , anyway...”

“Oh?”

“He’s a wizard and could have been a pretty strong one, but someone bound his core.” Hermione explained. “There’s good and bad to that. Good. If he’d been as magical as you, your Uncle would probably have snapped and may have killed you both.”

“I could see that happening. And bad?”

“He’s seventeen, eighteen in a month, technically he should already have gone through his magical maturation, already. But there’s good news there, too. The binding of his core has stunted his maturing.”

“Can you help him or is it too late?” Harry grimaced.

“There’s one possibility, it’s a bit extreme... but Madam Pomfrey, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick think it **_should_** work.” Hermione gave him a look that caused a feeling of dread.

“What is it?”

“It’s a combination of things. Hear me out, please?” She asked and Harry closed his eyes but nodded his head. “Some time ago, Professor Snape developed a potion, the intention was to alleviate the severity of the cruciatus. It’s a variant that combines a de-aging potion and a stabilising potion. By itself, it’s not enough to stabilise Dudley's core, but… if he were to de-age to just under Hogwarts’ age and you were to blood adopt him into your family as either your son or your brother, that would boost the Evans’ blood enough to stabilise him and the little bit of Potter blood would make him that much more powerful.”

“…uh… In English, Hermione?” Harry gave her a blank, not understanding, look.

“De-age him, back to eight to ten years of age, his magical maturation will be far enough away that his core can recover, naturally.” She answered.

“Okay, that makes sense… and the other bit?”

“You blood adopt him into your family, that will boost the Evans blood that you share and make his recovery easier. It will also give him a little bit of Potter blood, making him a stronger, magically.” She said.

“Oh…”

“I took him to Hogwarts to see Madam Pomfrey, she tested him and… well… We’ve got three days to act or he’ll be stuck as only slightly better than a squib for the rest of his life.”

“But… can I **_do_** that? I’m sentenced to the veil. Is it legal for me to adopt him? And what will happen to him when I go? I won’t do this, just to let him be forced back to Vernon and Petunia.” Harry growled.

“He won’t go back to the muggle world. And even in the very unlikely case that he did, he wouldn’t be Dudley Dursley anymore, he’d be Dudley Evans-Potter, the adoption would have boosted the Evans blood and the Potter would have overwritten the Dursley blood, due to magical blood being more powerful in a blood adoption, than muggle blood is.”

“In English, it will work, and he won’t be Dudley Dursley, muggle, anymore. He’ll be Dudley Evans-Potter, wizard.” Harry shrunk it down to one sentence.

“Yes.” Hermione rolled her eyes.

“You said three days? How soon can this happen and where will he go?”

“Either Bill and Fleur will take him in or there’s another middle-aged witch, she’s recently split from her husband and she’s happy to take him in. Dudley has asked to meet them all before he decides.” Hermione answered.

“And you’re the Potter Estate Manager, you handle that, right?”

“Right. You don’t have to do anything, other than the actual adoption.”

“Okay, do it. Set it up. No-one should have to have their core bound and no-one should have to put up with someone like Vernon Dursley. Ask Dud if he wants to choose a new first name to go with his new family names.”

“Got it.” Hermione was writing as Harry spoke.

“Anything on Ron?”

“I haven’t had a chance to speak to Bill, but I’m having dinner with him, Fleur and Charlie, so…?”

“Tomorrow, then?”

“Yeah…”

“Right, go on, get out of here, I need a shower and a nap.” Harry dragged himself to his feet.

“How did you go? On the senior Gauntlet?” Hermione asked as she stood and headed for the door.

“I passed, but only just. I only had twelve seconds left. I did the trainee’s Gauntlet with almost five minutes for spare, but the senior is a whole lot harder.” Harry muttered, pulling his shirt off.

“But you still did it.” Hermione said as she exited the room. “Kristen? Who’s in charge of the Gauntlet?”

“That would be Senior Auror Robards, Miss Granger.”

“How do I go about setting up a meeting with him?”

“I have to report to him just before my break, that’s in about half an hour, I can pass him a message or request a meeting on your behalf.” Trainee Timberley offered.

“Yes, please. If I could meet with him sometime over the next few days, that would be helpful. Not tomorrow morning though.” Hermione said.

“No, ma'am, he’s meeting with the Acting-Minister in the morning.”

“Ugh, better him than me.” Hermione screwed up her nose. Scrimgeour might be better than Fudge but Hermione didn't trust anyone that wanted that amount of power.

Hermione entered the Hogwarts’ hospital wing and greeted the medi-witch. “Good evening, Madam Pomfrey. How’s Dudley doing?”

“As well as can be expected, Miss Granger. Curse-breaker Weasley has scanned his bindings and feels that it will be a minor matter to lift them once Mr Dursley is ready for treatment to begin. I placed him under a stasis to secure you a little more time. It has increased my initial estimate from three days to six. Still not very long but it’s the best I can do.”

“Thank you, ma'am, any extra is helpful.” Hermione sighed.

“Oh, and young Mr Malfoy, was through a few minutes ago, he left something for you. That box over there.” Poppy Pomfrey indicated a small wooden box with an envelope leaning against it. “He said you were expecting it.”

“Oh, excellent.” Hermione opened the envelope and read the short message.

 _~~Granger~~ _ _Hermione_

_You wanted enough of this potion to de-age someone by eight years._

_I give you enough for just a few weeks short of eleven years._

_And no, that doesn’t significantly impact on what father still has,_

_but now I know how to get to it, I should have no issues acquiring_

_the remains of his stash. From what I can estimate, there is still_

_approximately a gallon, minus this phial, remaining. That does not_

_include the twenty-ounce phial that he’s using to treat my mother and I._

_I managed to get this without alerting father or his elf._

_You wanted the Malfoy libraries. They will have to wait until I see you in person._

_I removed both the main Malfoy library and the Malfoy Heir’s library and mother_

_has assisted me in placing an illusion in its place, keyed in using Rodolphus and Rabastan’s wands._

_Oh, and thank you for them, we used them both to muddy the timeframe._

_Father won’t know, for certain, when the libraries were removed or by whom._

_As I said,_

_Your wish is my command._

_Draco._

“…oh, my…” Hermione whispered.

“Something wrong, Miss Granger?” Madam Pomfrey inquired.

“No, not wrong, just… unexpected…”

“Is it not what you wanted?”

“Oh, yes, most definitely. I’ll be fetching Harry here tomorrow morning for Dudley's treatment. I’m hoping we can be in and ready to go by nine o’clock.” She smiled at the medi-witch. “But right now, I’m due for dinner at Bill and Fleur’s place.”

“Then you’d best get a wriggle on.” The older witch directed.

Apparating to shell cottage, Hermione made sure to face away from the beach, she wanted no reminders of that trip. Fleur waved from a window as she approached the cottage.

“Hermione. Welcome back.” The blonde veela’s French accent was very light and barely noticeable.

“Hello, Fleur. Hey Bill.” She replied, calling out the second greeting to the redhead she could see in the kitchen.

“Hi, Mione.” He called back. “Good timing, foods ready, but it can wait if you want to hear the news first. Charlie's running late, said he won't be in until late.”

“Is it going to ruin my appetite?” Hermione asked, only half joking.

“No, not this time. Turns out to not be as bad as I thought. Nowhere near it.” Bill sighed in relief.

“Oh, well… um… Oh, let’s get it out of the way, then I can relax.” Hermione huffed in self-annoyance.

“You got it. Where do you want me to start? Mum and dad and work my way down? Or Ron and Ginny and work my way up?” Bill waggled his brows at her.

“Caster’s choice, Bill, you’re doing the telling.”

“Alright, mum and dad. Mum's been admitted to St. Mungo's. Apparently, she should have been taking potions since our uncles died, but the problem was that we didn’t have the money, so they got forgotten. Taking out Bellatrix, got mum a nice little reward from the DMLE. So, she’s getting her potions. The healers said that mum’s mind kept substituting Fred and George with Fabian and Gideon and she kept thinking that they were already dead, that was why she kept her distance from them. You can’t hug ghosts and in a part of her mind, that’s what the twins were. Dad was completely oblivious to all this and is beating himself up about it, now. He’s got a nice selection of potions to take, too, and Uncle Gareth was forced to step in, dad's going to be living with him for the foreseeable future and mum will join them, when St. Mungo's release her.”

“Wow…” Hermione gasped.

“Not what you were expecting, huh?”

“No…”

“Well, there’s more…” Bill took a sip of his drink. “Percy’s had a short sharp lesson in life, and it hit hard. He always had the room next to the twins and he was their favourite victim because of it. He’s never realised that they’ve grown up, and I’m not sure that he has yet. Oh, he says it, but I’m not sure he believes it.”

Fleur snorted elegantly.

“You don’t believe that either, huh?” Hermione quirked an eyebrow at the blonde witch.

“Non, I do not. He knows it, but I do not think he truly believes it. But I understand, I am ze same way with Gabrielle, she will always be my little sister, even though I will never see her again. Her mate eez from Brazil, she will be returning with him, later this year.” She told Hermione.

“And you’re okay with…?” She trailed off.

“Bill eez my mate and his family eez my family, now. You and Harry are my family, my sister and my brother. Oui, I am ‘okay’ with this. We will be going with you.” Fleur replied and gave her a hug.

“Thank you.” Hermione whispered, her voice full of tears.

Bill took her from his wife’s arms and enclosed her in his own, squeezing lightly before guiding her to a seat.

“Percy and mum blundered in, in typical Weasley fashion, when it came to the twins’ shop. They’re not trying to get George to sign it **_over_** , what they were trying to do was to get George to **_add_** Percy to the shop’s paperwork.”

“Well, they didn’t make that very clear.” Hermione huffed.

“No, they didn’t and bluntly until they do, I think it’s best if we leave it the way it is. Particularly, as George is going with us.” Bill began to mix things in a bowl, salad leaves, tomatoes and pieces of chicken. “Ron wants to meet with you, but he’s asking for it to **_not_** be until the night before Harry… goes. He’s done a lot of growing up, the shock of losing Fred has hit him hard. He’s been doing a lot of work around the house and talking to a mind healer from St. Mungo's.” Bill laughed at the dumbfounded look on Hermione’s face. “Yeah, that was my reaction, too. I’ve fairly sure he suspects something, though, but he’s made no attempt to ask about it, other than to ask to meet with you. He was quite clear that it was to be the night before Harry… leaves.”

“Well… I... I suppose Ron is quite smart when he wants to be… and he know me so well… I can’t say I’m surprised that he’s suspicious. But making sure the meeting isn’t until the night before the veiling? I wonder why?” Hermione asked.

“Charlie thinks it might be so that he can honestly say, that while he had a suspicion, he hadn’t been told anything and didn’t know anything for certain.”

“You know, that’s **_very_** Ron.” Hermione huffed.

“Oh, yeah, he’s very good at burying his head in the cauldron, but this time, I think he’s doing it deliberately.” Bill said.

“Certainly, sounds like it.” Fleur agreed.

“It does.” Hermione nodded.

“And Ginny? She’s always had crush on the Boy-Who- Lived. Meeting Harry hasn’t changed that and him saving her from the basilisk, just reinforced it. And of course, she never got any treatment after that, so it sort-of slipped through the cracks. She’s with mum at St. Mungo's, they’re giving her the treatment she should have got, but didn’t. Whatever you said to her after the battle, she didn’t like it, she was whinging about leaving you and Harry. Ron cut her off and asked why wouldn’t we leave you with your brother? That pulled Gin to a stop, for a bit, but later she said something about her and Harry. Ron reached over and smacked her upside the head and told that there was no chance that she and Harry were going to get together.” Bill took a few sips of his drink before continuing. “Both she and mum demanded to know why he’d say that, so he told them. He said that there were two main reasons why, one was that Ginny still looked at Harry like he was the Boy-Who-Lived, she knew next to nothing about Harry. And two, Ginny looks like his mother.”

“Molly and Ginevra wanted to know why that was a problem and Ron just asked them what boy wants to kiss a girl that looks like his mum?” Fleur added.

“Then Ron went on and explained that Ginny hung around with them, but she rarely ever spoke to Harry and that she’d told him at Dumbledore’s funeral that he’d never be happy until he’d killed Voldemort. That confused them all. He had to explain that Harry didn’t want Voldemort to die, he hadn’t ever wanted to kill anyone, all he wanted was a family to love but to get that he has to stop Voldemort. Stop, not kill. Harry didn't want to kill him and in the end he didn't, Voldemort's own curse rebounded and that was what killed him, not Harry.”

“That shut them all up.” Fleur smiled.

“It did. It also made Ginny think, she was the one to ask about treatment, when mum went to St. Mungo's. The healers were horrified that she hadn’t been treated and were adamant that she should have been.” Bill began to cut up a loaf of bread.

“But you’re still coming with Harry and I? Even after learning all this?” Hermione asked.

“Yes, we’re still coming. Hermione, you have to understand that the mother I know, is not one who’d agree to getting the sort of medical help that Molly Weasley is getting. Charlie and I left home as soon as we could, to avoid the kind of issues that Percy, Ron and Ginny have, because of Molly’s need to control and smother. This last year in England has been hell and not because of the war. I don’t recognise… the Molly Weasley that I saw last night is not my mother and bluntly, my mother wasn’t a nice woman and I can’t reconcile the two. Neither Charlie nor I will ever be able to look at her and not see the woman that dominated our lives. Going with you and Harry…? That’s easy… and a bit of a relief. Otherwise, we’d probably end up moving to the other side of the world just to get away from her.” Bill hung his head forward, his hair falling over his face. “I love them, but… I… I can’t trust that she’ll stick with it, so many times she started something and just stopped. I think it’s great that they’re getting help, but I don’t want to be here to see it.”

“Fair enough. But what do I tell Harry? And can you subtly let Ron know that Harry has no idea what I’m putting in his trunk, that he won’t find out until he gets wherever he’s going?” Hermione asked.

“I can do that.” Fleur said. “I’m going to the Burrow for lunch tomorrow, with Molly and Ginevra still in St. Mungo's, I’ll be doing the groceries for the house, as heaven knows, none of them seem to know how.”


	10. Chapter 10

_“Fair enough. But what do I tell Harry? And can you subtly let Ron know that Harry has no idea what I’m putting in his trunk, that he won’t find out until he gets wherever he’s going?” Hermione asked._

_“I can do that.” Fleur said. “I’m going to the Burrow for lunch tomorrow, with Molly and Ginevra in St. Mungo's, I’ll be doing the groceries for the house, as heaven knows, none of them seem to know how.”_

“Evening, Harry.” Hermione grinned as she entered Harry’s interview room.

“Hermione? I didn’t think you were coming in today?” Harry blinked at his friend.

“I wasn’t planning on it, but…” She held up a hand holding an envelope. “Headley asked me to bring you this.” Dudley had taken Harry’s offer to change his name and decided on Headley Evans-Potter.

“What’s it say?”

“I don’t know, Harry, I don’t read other people’s mail.” Hermione answered.

Harry just looked at her before raising an eyebrow in question.

“Don’t say a word, Harry Potter.” Hermione glared at him.

Harry just smirked at her.

“Oh, shut it, Potter.” She huffed, dropped the letter on the table and stalked into the attached bathroom.

Seconds after she’d closed the door there was a tapping from the main DMLE hall door.

“Come in.” Harry called, wondering what was going on, he didn’t usually get other visitors in the evenings **_or_** when Hermione was present. Trainee Laurence opened the door a crack and looked in.

“Mr Potter? A Mr Neville Longbottom is requesting to speak to you and Miss Granger, urgently. Will you-” The trainee began, only to be cut off.

“Yes, of course. Let him in.” Harry told the trainee.

“Yes, sir.” Laurence opened the door and Neville walked in. A Neville dressed in formal day robes.

“Neville? Hermione’s in the loo, she won’t be long. What’s up?”

“Hello, Harry.” Neville gave him a tight smile, as Hermione re-entered the room, obviously having heard Harry speak to Laurence and then to Neville.

“Neville? You alright?” She asked.

Neville visibly grit his teeth before answering. “This last week, the ICW declared that any of us that fought at Hogwarts could take our OWLs or NEWTs, take just the practical exams and they would mark that as our complete assessment. Some of us did it, some didn’t. I did. I got six NEWTs.”

“Congratulations.” Harry smiled at his dormmate.

“The scores were sent out and I got mine this morning.” Neville’s words were bitten off, it was clear that he was angry about something. “Seeing that I passed, gran decided that, as I was of age and had my NEWTs, she would take me to Gringotts to petition for me to claim the head of house Longbottom position. I put the rings on, like the goblins told me to and claimed control of the estate and the family. We’d barely got home before gran told me it was time to let my parents go, that she’d only been keeping them alive until I’d left Hogwarts.”

“Oh, Neville…” Hermione whispered.

“She said there was a potion that would send them to sleep and let them **_die_** quietly.” Neville snarled. “I… I exploded. I destroyed half the parlour before sending her to her rooms and telling the house elves that she was to have no further contact with anyone outside the manor, today. Then I apparated to at Mungo's. They were waiting for me, but they thought I was going to go ahead with gran’s plan. I bluntly informed them that I would be removing my parents and making sure that the only Longbottom that St. Mungo's would ever treat again would be Lady Augusta. That I didn’t trust the hospital to do the right thing by my family.”

“ _ **Hrrr**_ …” The sound that came from Harry was a very animalistic noise, the growl of an angry animal.

“Hermione? I am here to formally request sanctuary in Hedwig’s Nest.” Neville asked.

“Say what? Hedwig’s what?” Harry asked.

“Hermione’s built a refuge for some of the… uh…” Neville trailed off, unsure exactly what to say.

“For people like Moony.” Hermione finished for him. “I took what you gave me and used it to protect people that Umbitch and her cronies want to put down like animals. It’s completely out of the Ministry’s jurisdiction, they have no authority there at all. The Order's new leader was the one to suggest it. A couple of survivors from the battle, had been bitten, so far, they haven’t shifted but that could be because Madam Pomfrey and Miss Sissy kept them so heavily sedated over the full moon, that the only thing they were capable of, was breathing. Some of their injuries were that bad.” Hermione let Harry think that this was an island or a piece of property outside of Britain and the British Ministry’s control, not a pocket-space in a trunk.

“Oh, okay…” Harry’s head wobbled slightly as he tried to control his emotions. He didn’t need to destroy the DMLE, he had to live here for another week, yet.

“And of course, you may, Neville.” Hermione huffed. “I don’t know why you thought you even had to ask. You’ve been working alongside those that are going to live there, you’ve put in as much effort as any of us. Why you thought I would deny you a home there, I just don’t know.”

“I didn’t, Hermione, but I wanted to make it formal.” Neville let some of the tension leave his shoulders.

“Oh, okay, that’s good, then.” Hermione shook her head. “Would you like me to ask Miss Sissy to move in now? She and her son did offer but I hadn’t made a decision yet.”

“I’d like that very much. I told St. Mungo's that I’d be back inside the hour and that they weren’t to give my parents any more potions, food or drink, while they were preparing them for transportation. And that Luna and Bill Weasley would be monitoring the hospital’s actions. If the staff did anything that I don’t approve of, I would see that the hospital’s reputation was completely and utterly destroyed.” Neville’s snarl was returning.

“Right.” Hermione pulled out her wand and cast a Patronus. “Message to Miss Sissy.” The ruffled, not-so-sleek otter nodded. “Miss Sissy? It’s time. Please?” Hermione’s voice was younger and sounded much more scared.

“Hermione?” Harry’s raised brows made the question clear.

“Missy Sissy’s husband is abusive, Harry, she's had enough and is taking my offer of a new place to live, but we were waiting until next week to act. This idea was created as a cover for her and her son. It means that I can call for her at any time, and her husband will be under the impression that she’s tending to a very young pregnant girl. So, if I call, like I just did, and her husband is present, he won’t be suspicious of her leaving, thinking it’s just another medical house-call.” Hermione replied.

“And what about her son?” Harry asked.

“He’ll be along in an hour or two, that’s the plan. He’ll pack up the last of their things before he leaves.” She answered.

Harry nodded. “Good plan, sneaky.”

Neville laughed and Hermione blushed.

“What…?” Harry turned his head to look at them, slightly side-on.

“Hermione was muttering about our D.A. ʛalleons and having to recreate them, when Draco Malfoy asked what the problem was. She told him and he hummed and then told her to pretend she was a Death-Eater victim and was pregnant as a result. Miss Sissy’s husband would back off instantly, if he heard that.” Neville was still trying not to laugh. “And ‘cause Malfoy is the only Death-Eater that **_wouldn’t_** have done that, given half a chance… since then, a few of the refugees have taken to calling Hermione, Mrs Malfoy.”

“…oh, okay, then….” Harry’s eyes widened and his jaw fell slightly.

“Neville, so help me, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to hex you pink for a week.” Hermione ground out.

“I’m going, I’m going. Where should we meet you?” Neville chuckled.

“Have you got your expanded trunk with you?” Hermione asked.

“Of course, I don’t leave it anywhere.” Neville answered.

“Put your parents in there and meet me at… um… how does the shrieking shack sound? I’ll have Miss Sissy with me, and I can transport you from there.”

“Sounds fine by me.” Neville nodded and approached Harry. “You’ll be missed here, Harry, don’t doubt that for one second.” He hugged the man and stepped back. “See you.” And left the room.

“If you’re meeting this Miss Sissy, you’d better get a move on, too, Hermione. Let me know how everything goes, please?” Harry asked.

“I will.” Hermione hugged Harry and followed Neville out the door.

Some hundred-odd miles to the west, in a handsome manor house in Wiltshire, a ruffled otter Patronus appeared in the dining room.

“Miss Sissy? It’s time. Please?” It spoke with the voice of a scared young woman.

“Oh dear… she’s early.” Narcissa Malfoy nee Black sighed.

“Narcissa?” Lucius Malfoy’s voice was full of warning.

“One of the idiots messed up. A girl got pregnant, I’m not sure whether it’s Rabastan’s or Rodolphus’, but neither of them cared about precautions.” Narcissa sighed, telling Lucius the cover that Draco and Hermione had decided upon. It helped that it was partially the truth, just that the girl who had actually gotten pregnant had committed suicide when she realised what had happened.

“Ah. And you’re helping her. Out of the goodness of your heart? Or to promote our public reputation?” Lucius wanted to know which it was.

“No, Lucius, neither. I’m helping her because the child should have been my sister’s and that is what Draco suggested we pass the child off as. A blood adoption and a few aging potions and it would be old enough to be Bella’s. Trying to protect my mentally damaged sister is an excellent cover for why we were at Hogwarts that day. And it would stand to reason that I would take in her child and raise it as my own, it would also garner sympathy from those that lost family to the war.” Narcissa replied, holding onto her calm by the slimmest of margins.

“And now she’s gone into labour?” Lucius asked.

“Whether she has or not, I won’t know until I examine her, but if she has, she’s early, by nearly a week.”

“I see… Well, you had best your things together and see to her. We shall not expect you back until we see you, my dear.” Lucius didn’t care how long she took, he was already planning on spending whatever time he could, in his ‘research’ chamber in the outer dungeons. He had a lovely little muggle girl to ‘study’, Narcissa being away would give him hours to play with the pretty young thing.

“As you say.” Narcissa stood and left the room.

“Draco? What will you be doing while your mother is busy?” Lucius asked, frowning at his son, of late the young man had become rash and headstrong, it was time to put an end to that. When Narcissa brought the infant home, Lucius would re-educate his son, if the babe was a boy, it might be easier to simply cut his losses and prune the family tree. He’d have to think on it a little more.

“Mother asked me to search the attics, she believes there’s a portrait of her great-grandparents Black.” Draco answered.

“And what do you get from looking?” Draco wouldn’t have volunteered without a reason.

“I shall be godfather to the newest arrival.” Draco shrugged. That didn't mean this imaginary baby, but Headley Evans-Potter.

“You knew of the child?” Lucius brows rose.

“I was the one to who found her, I was the one to tell her she didn’t have to keep it, I put her in contact with mother.” The younger sipped at his wine. “I had seen what they’d done to her, in the initial attack. Finding her pregnant, I had actually thought Aunt Bella might adopt the child and raise it herself. Mother and Aunt Bella prepared the adoption potion, the babe only needs to be dosed and it would become Aunt Bella’s natural child.” That he'd also held the poor girl as she taken her last few breaths, had gutted him for weeks and was still affecting his sleep.

“Ah… well done. You see to your mother’s search and I shall be in my research chamber for the next few hours. I would prefer that you not disturb me, until your mother returns.” Lucius informed his son.

“As you wish, father. I’ll send one of the elves, your research chamber is too cramped for my liking, the only time you’ve permitted me in it, I did not enjoy the experience.” Draco admitted.

“Good, see that you stay out of it.” Lucius patted his lips with his napkin and stood. He left the room and Draco waited patiently until he heard the door for the access tunnel to Lucius’ ‘research’ chamber close.

The younger blonde knew he only had, at most, five minutes to act, the time it would take Lucius to get from the house, through the tunnel to the chamber, find the girl missing and get back to the house. After that it would be an exercise in frustration for the arrogant man. He stood and crossed the room in the hallway he approached the stair in time to see his mother descend.

“Please tell her that I will meet her where we first saw the shack at nine o’clock, mother.” Draco requested. “I still have a number of things to see to.”

“Of course, my dragon. Take my keys. Empty the vaults as best you can. Let’s make this as difficult for Lucius as possible. I’ve also released all the elves. If you’ve ‘turned’, they’ll still respond to you.” Narcissa held out a delicate gold ring holding four Gringotts’ keys.

“Certainly, mother.” Draco gave his mother a light kiss on the cheek. “Stay safe.” He begged.

“I will do my best.” Narcissa nodded and headed for the transport room and its apparition point.

Draco pulled out the time turner that Hermione had given him and quickly sought out the isolated room he’d chosen as his ‘turning’ room. Once in the room, he turned the time turner back by one rotation. One hour would give him plenty of time to get started.

“Folly?” He made sure that the elf he called was not one that tended to he and his mother, after Lucius’ ‘lessons’ under the cruciatus.

“Young master is calling Folly?” The elf appeared at his side.

“In father’s ‘research’ chamber there is a young muggle girl. Remove her, obliviate her of her stay here and heal her as best you can. Then give her a blanket and deposit her in… hmm… let’s say… Sheffield, in the entrance of a muggle hospital.” Draco ordered. He knew that Lucius may discover him as the one to order her removal, but by then it would be too late.

Once that was done, he headed for his own rooms, he packed everything in them, right down to the furniture and even the rugs on the floor, knowing that his mother would have done the exact same thing within moments of Hermione’s call. There was only one thing left to do.

The potion that Hermione wanted. He was discovering that, while it had initially been meant as a throwaway comment, he was fast coming to realise that he meant every word of it.

Her wish was his command.

“Pinny?” He called calmly.

“Young master calls Pinny.” The youngest elf in the manor appeared with a quiet pop beside Draco.

“I did. In father’s personal potions lab there is a cask labelled with the number five. Bring it to me.”

“Yes, young master.” The elf nodded and popped away, only to reappear in seconds with the cask which she laid at Draco's feet.

“Good. In the main study, in the top right drawer in the desk’s lower sections, there is a decorative purple flask labelled with the same number, in the same handwriting. Bring to me.” Draco gave what he believed to be his last order within the manor.

“Yes, master.” The elf popped away and returned with the flask that Draco wanted.

“You may return to your duties.” He waved the elf off.

“Yes, master.” The elf vanished.

Draco took a deep breath, time to act. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a tiny box. A few taps of his wand enlarged the trunk. He stood it on its end and enlarged it even further. He tapped his wand against the lock and opened the lid/door before carefully placing the cask and the flask inside, on one of the shelves that lined the trunk’s expanded interior, before taking up a broom that leant against the wall beside the trunk’s entrance. Then he reversed his actions and re-pocketed the now small box.

He put on the glamour ring that he’d bought in Knockturn Alley and followed that with a carefully laid disillusionment charm and made his way to the room’s small balcony before taking out the time turner. Seven turns and the room spun around him, when it settled, he mounted the broom and took to the air. He still had vaults to visit and (almost-)empty and a large wardrobe of clothes to collect from Twilfit and Tattings and only eight hours before he had to meet Hermione. Eight hours to make sure that he had everything on his and his mother's lists.

Nine o’clock and Draco walked the last few yards to the small clearing beside the gap in the fence that led to the shrieking shack. He paused at the sight of the young witch sitting on a rock, beside the fence.

“Good evening, Hermione.” He called quietly and kept walking towards her.

She startled and looked up from the notes she was writing. “Good evening, Draco.” She smiled at the blonde. “Your mother’s already been, we had a… an unexpected development.”

“Oh?” He came to a halt beside her rock.

“Neville claimed the Longbottom title this afternoon.” She began.

“Ah…”

“No, that’s not the issue. After doing that, his gran told him it was time to give his parents a potion that would let them die.” Draco’s eyes widened in shock. “As you can guess, that didn't go down well, I'm told the parlour was... significantly damaged. Neville removed his parents from St. Mungo's and formally asked for sanctuary in the Nest. He is on his way to Gringotts to empty the Longbottom vaults.”

“Formally?” Draco's brows rose in surprise.

“Formally.” Hermione nodded. “They’re going with us. He’s asked for your mother to attend them. I know it’s a lot earlier than we agreed on but I’m really hoping you managed to get the rest of that de-aging potion.”

“My dear Hermione.” Draco smirked. “Of course, I did. It might be earlier than you expected but we did discuss the possibility and I recall saying that mother and I had a plan in place, that meant we would only require a few minutes to enact. You gave us those minutes and they in turn gave me eight hours. Thanks to a generously donated time turner.” He held the little hourglass in front of her and waited until she accepted it. “For which I am very grateful. Eight hours was more than enough to finish off my few errands and empty the Malfoy vaults. The goblins were quite amused, and I think as a result of that, I got a better deal on gems than I may have, otherwise. Mother and I are as ready as we’re ever going to get. Moving today is… There’s less than seven days, now, before Potter enters the veil. Mother and I talked about it this afternoon, we reached the conclusion that we would have to disappear at least a few days prior, just to ward off suspicion. Realistically, we’re probably only a day or two early, not the week you thought.”

Hermione stared off into the distance while she thought about what Draco had said.

“You’re right.” She nodded. “I’ll let the others know and get a schedule together.”

“It doesn’t matter so much about them, father’s not going to rant at the Minister over them, he has no interest in them. The house wards are going to confuse him, the empty vaults are going to enrage him, but as Potter is sentenced to the veil and you have clearly stated your intentions to travel, neither of you will be of interest to him. Longbottom may be, just because of timing, but everyone else is working towards the reconstruction of Hogwarts. Father might question some of the staff, but as I won’t be returning to Hogwarts after this, the last contact any of its residents will have had with me would be… yesterday lunch. I was helping Slughorn finish up the hospital’s potion list.” He smirked. “Father will be furious to know that **_he_** … was one of the last to see me.”

Hermione’s smirk matched his and the two shared a moment of pleasure at the thought of the man’s reaction.

“Sweet…” Hermione sighed blissfully.

“Yes.” Draco dragged his eyes from her face. “How do you plan to get me into the Nest? Aren’t people still working on it?”

“They are, which is why, for the next few days, you won’t actually be staying in the Nest. I created a trunk that is just a transition space. This is where the hidden refugees are staying.”

“The hidden refugees, the ones that the public thinks are dead?” Draco blinked.

“Yes. You’ll be staying with them, you’ll be the first to know who they are. Your mother is in the trunk, yes, but she’s so focused on Neville’s parents that we haven’t pushed their identities on her. I’m going to let you decide when she’ll be ready to see them, once you know who they are.” While she was talked Hermione retrieved a trunk and enlarged it.

“I don’t like the sounds of this.” Draco grimaced and turned to face the shack.

“No, I dare say you won’t.” A voice from the past said.

Draco spun around and saw a dead man.

“Sev…” Draco’s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the ground.

“Lovely.” Snape drawled and flicked a wand to levitate the prone form into the air. “I shall see to Draco, Miss Granger, if you will pass the rejuvenation potion along to Narcissa? Once I retrieve it from his person.”

“Of course, Professor.” Hermione quickly followed the potions’ Master and the floating blonde into the trunk.


	11. Chapter 11

_“I don’t like the sounds of this.” Draco grimaced and turned to face the shack._

_“No, I dare say you won’t.” A voice from the past said._

_Draco turned and saw a dead man._

_“Sev…” Draco’s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped to the ground._

_“Lovely.” Snape drawled and flicked a wand to levitate the prone form into the air. “I shall see to Draco, Miss Granger, if you will pass the rejuvenation potion along to Narcissa?”_

_“Of course, Professor.” Hermione quickly followed the potions’ Master and the floating blonde into the trunk._

The Tuesday of the week Harry was due to enter the veil, the refugees moved into the Nest, not completely, McGonagall was still at Hogwarts and George and Charlie still had some clothes at the shop. And of course, Hermione was staying with them and she had control of the pocket space, so all of them were actually planning to sleep in their houses in the Nest.

But for that to happen, Hermione had to introduce them to the hidden refugees. Something she was very nervous about.

Right now, everyone was gathered in the settlement’s equivalent of a Town Hall, a large bare-framed structure with a solid roof and no walls, that they were calling The Pavilion. The space was enchanted to a fare-thee-well, by Professor Flitwick, with a variety of environment and comfort charms along with lighting and sound amplification spells.

Hermione stood on a small dais platform, that stood just two-foot-high, with a carefully screened-off area off to her right, drawing everyone's eyes.

“Hello, everyone.” She tried to smile but failed. “Welcome to the Nest. You all know that the Nest idea was created by Kingsley Shacklebolt as a way to hide some of the survivors of the Hogwarts Battle. What only a few of you know is who those survivors are.” She held up a hand. “Yes, you know about Katie, Natalie, Lavender, Parvati and Colin. Yes, you know about Neville and his parents. But… you don’t know about the other three. For two reasons. One, to protect them. Two, to protect you.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “The first person is a werewolf, you know that the Ministry would put him down, instantly, if they found him. But we’ve all known about him for years.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve asked and he’s agreed to continue teaching. Please welcome Remus Lupin and his son Teddy.” She felt like a game-show host. Urgh....

There were gasps and a couple of smothered squeals from Lavender and Parvati as Remus stepped through a section of the screens and down off the platform, his infant son in his arms.

“Hello…” He gave them a hesitant smile that grew larger as a number of people leapt from their seats and ran over to him, surrounding him with smiles and laughter.

Hermione let that continue for a few minutes before calling them to order.

“Excuse me? Would everyone please sit down, we’re not finished yet.” A minute passed while people reclaimed their seats. “Thank you. This next person… he wasn’t well liked, but since the battle, I’ve heard all of you who returned to Hogwarts for this last year, tell tales of his… inventiveness, of his protectiveness. And we all saw the pensieve projection of memories in the Great Hall, so we all know that he was, as Harry once so eloquently said, completely Dumbledore’s man. And he’s agreed to teach those interested, but the potions’ labs are his domain. Please welcome Severus Snape.”

There was a heartbeat of silence as Snape stepped from the screens and down the two steps to the pavilion floor. Then a flood of the younger students engulfed him. His arms flailed for a few seconds, before a look of half-joy-half-reluctance crossed his face and his arm dropped to enclose the five youngsters, sobbing into his robes. Bill and Charlie were the next to reach him, their arms encircling his shoulders.

“Good to have you back.” Bill muttered. “Harry’s been beating himself up, thinking he might have saved you if he’d been a little quicker.”

“Mr Potter would likely have got us both killed if he had. I knew it was coming and I had a fair idea when it would happen. When I was called to the boathouse, I knew it was time, but was uncertain that my anti-venom potion had had enough time to saturate my system. Thankfully, it was successful, albeit that it was a slow recovery, instead of the few minutes I had anticipated.”

“You’re still with us, Professor, that’s all that’s important.” Charlie smiled at him. “Come and sit down with your leeches.” He grinned at Natalie, Euan, Colin, Dennis and Luna.

“I don’t think they’re going to let go in a hurry.” George added. “Thanks for keeping an eye on Ginny.”

Snape just nodded and herded his armload of children towards the bench that Bill had transfigured from a chair. It took a few seconds but eventually they were looking to Hermione, again.

“This last person…” She whispered. “I’m so sorry, I wanted to tell you, but his family…? They were already making plans around his death. Not you lot, but the rest of the family and that meant that you had to stay in the dark, you couldn’t know he was alive. You’re all good actors, you’ve had plenty of practice this last year, but… even so, people have guessed that something is happening, not what, but something. When Kingsley initially suggested hiding people, a main reason was to keep this man’s family from overwhelming him, his injuries were so bad. He’s almost recovered, now, but still has a way to go before he’ll be back on a broom. George, Bill, Charlie? Forgive me, please…” Hermione whispered as Fred shuffled around the screen on a set of crutches, two redheads in motion before he’d got more than two steps.

Bill and Charlie had tears running down their faces as they held their brother.

“Forge?” Fred’s voice was rough and cracked.

George stood and slowly crossed to stand in front of them. “Gred…” He reached out a hand and touched Fred’s shoulder. “Huh.” He snorted. “No wonder I didn’t feel as bad as I thought I should, once the shock had passed.” He dragged his twin from his brothers’ arms and held him tight. “You owe me one.”

“When Miss Sissy releases me, you got it.” Fred had his head buried in George’s neck. “Can we sit down, my legs aren’t working right, yet?” George didn’t answer he just guided them over to the quidditch girls and Lee, who had conjured themselves daybeds.

While the reunion had been happening, Hermione had flicked her wand and the screens had packed themselves away.

“Anyone else, Hermione?” Seamus called from the back of the pavilion.

“No, that’s it.” Hermione laughed, the weight on her shoulders gone. “For the moment, I want to place a memory charm on Bill, George and Charlie, so that when they leave the trunk, they won’t remember Fred’s alive, they still have to meet with the goblins and sign over the shop to Percy. If he or Molly thought that Fred was still alive, it could ruin everything we’ve worked towards.” Bill exchanged looks with his brothers and nodded. “Thanks. Harry and I have to meet with the goblins this afternoon. Rocksplitter suggested that I bring Harry’s trunk, apparently Gringotts have something they wish to send with us. When I know more, I’ll let you know. Alright?” A smattering of nods and a few words of agreement were the response. “Thanks, guys.”

Harry, Hermione and Kingsley entered Diagon Alley to be greeted with a busy and prosperous shopping area. Rather like Harry remembered from his first trip here, with Hagrid. As they walked passed Eeylops Owl Emporium, Hermione blinked and hummed, before pulling out her ever-ready notepad and scribbling down a few words.

People looked at them, but with two trainee Aurors in front of him and Kingsley at his side, no-one attempted to approach them. A few smiled and other waved, but Harry was left to walk the alley in peace.

Stepping into Gringotts was a relief, the lack of stares allowing Harry to relax, slightly.

“Mr Potter, Miss Granger. Aurors.” Rocksplitter nodded to each of them.

“Master Rocksplitter.” Kingsley nodded back.

“Greetings, Master Rocksplitter.” Harry and Hermione spoke almost as one, earning them a look of amusement from the Aurors.

“Come through to my office, we have matters to discuss.” Rocksplitter replied, getting straight down to business, the moment they were seated. “Mr Potter you will be entering the veil in two days. Gringotts have worked with you and Miss Granger to see that your and her requests have been met.” He paused for a few seconds. “However, new information has been provided to us and as a result of that information, we believe that Mr Potter may not be sufficiently equipped for the environment he may enter.” Alarm shone on Hermione and Harry’s faces, but before either of them could speak, Rocksplitter continued. “We have reviewed the interview of a being that emerged from the veil many years ago. They were brought to Gringotts because it was believed that Gringotts had a more… reliable method of determining the truth. It is as a result of reviewing that interview, that Gringotts has reached the conclusion that, if you are transported to the world from which this being came, you would most definitely be under-equipped.”

“What can we do to change that?” Kingsley asked.

“That is why I have requested your presence.” Rocksplitter replied. “Gringotts’ Director has decided to supply the equipment and the training you may need to use that equipment.”

“The Director?” Kingsley blinked. “The Director is aware of what’s happening?”

“Of course, the Director is aware, Auror Shacklebolt, he’s well aware of what is happening in both the wizarding world and in the muggle world. He has to be, he’s the Director for all Gringotts’s branches in Britain.” Rocksplitter snapped.

“My apologies, I had not intended any offence, I’m merely surprised that the Director would concern himself with a matter that has no bearing on Gringotts, as a whole, and is in effect a wizarding matter, something that Gringotts has in the past refused to involve itself in.” Kingsley quickly explained.

“Ah, but what you are unaware of regarding Mr Potter and his friends, is that as a result of their… actions against the bank, an in-depth investigation was initiated. A number of… anomalies were discovered. Anomalies that would have had a massively detrimental effect on the bank and eventually on the entire economy of the wizarding world.” Rocksplitter explained.

“Enough to involve the bank in wizarding matters, though?” Kingsley asked, with a frown.

“And then some.” Rocksplitter nodded.

“Oh, gods.” Kingsley’s face went a little grey.

“I’m glad to see that you understand the severity of the situation we faced. If Mr Potter and his associates hadn’t acted, it is very likely that we would have not detected the anomalies in question, until too late to rectify the matter. But they did. And the issues have been… corrected, shall we say? That leaves the Director in an unusual position. How to show our appreciation to Mr Potter but at the same time, not announce the reasoning behind it, to the public? Then one of our archivists came forward, she had recently reviewed the interview I mentioned earlier. The Director viewed the interview and after deliberation with his advisors, came to a possible solution to both.” Rocksplitter sat forward. “Gringotts is offering Mr Potter something that has never been done before. We are gifting him weapons. Mr Potter will visit our armourer who will draw a small sample of blood, this will enable weapons to be called by the master armourer, using Mr Potter’s blood as the summoning agent. We will also bind the weapons to him, and only those of his blood or those he and his magic approve of, will be able to use those weapons.”

Rocksplitter waited patiently while Harry and Hermione processed what they’d been told.

“However, Mr Potter has to consent to the drawing of his blood, or the bindings will not take.”

“I will.” Harry said. “I will consent to my blood being taken if… if I can watch the process?”

“Oh, you’ll do more than watch Mr Potter, you’ll be involved. We understand that few wizards know how to wield a blade, so in addition to providing bladed weapons, we will be providing training memories. So, that-”

“Excuse me?” Harry lifted a hand. “What is a training memory and how would I use it?”

Rocksplitter looked to Kingsley in question.

“Yes, I can answer that.” The Auror said. “Harry, a training memory is a memory taken from someone who has the knowledge or experience of a particular skill or event. They’re from the creator's point of view and show only what the creator can see, but because they're from a personal point of view, you will process the memory as though it were your own. Once your occlumency improves enough, you will be able to recognise the difference between a training memory and one of your own. They're copied and the recipient simply inserts them in the same manner that you return a memory that you’ve extracted to watch in a pensieve. The only major difference is that it’s best done immediately before preparing for sleep, as it can make you quite drowsy.”

“Oh, okay. And afterwards, I’d know how to use whatever weapon?”

“You’d understand how to but while you’d have the mental reflexes and reactions needed, your body will lack some strength without additional physical preparation.” Rocksplitter added a caution.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Harry grinned. “I have no problems with that.”

“Excellent. Mr Potter if you and your Auror guard would follow Bogrod, he will escort you the armoury. I have a few things still to discuss with Miss Granger in regard to her departure from Britain.”

“Mione?” Harry asked, clearly undecided on whether she was comfortable with him basically abandoning her.

“It’s fine, Harry. At the very least, I’ll catch up with you this evening.” She assured him.

“If you’re sure…?”

“Yes, Harry.” Hermione rolled her eyes at him, causing him to laugh but he stood and waited for Kingsley and the two trainees to flank him, before following a younger goblin from the room.

“I wasn’t aware we still had business?” Hermione asked, tilting her head as she spoke.

“Technically, we **_didn’t_** , however, at the Director’s orders, we are extending our offer from only Mr Potter, to you and any witch or wizard that will be travelling with him.” Rocksplitter raised a hairy brow in challenge.

“And makes makes you think anyone is going with him?” Hermione squinted at the goblin.

“Too many young people and a few older ones, are cashing in their vaults, exchanging them for raw or partially processed materials, for muggle money, gems or unstamped coin blanks. Exactly the same as you’ve ordered for Mr Potter.”

“I see…” Hermione wanted to smack herself over the head, of course the bloody goblins would notice. “And what do you plan to do about it?”

“Nothing, Miss Granger. What a witch or wizard does with their finances is normally not a concern to Gringotts, however, circumstances being what they are and the identities of those involved, taken into consideration…? As I said, Gringotts are extending our offer to cover you and your counterparts. Oh, we don’t require their names, some of them, I’m sure we already know, and perhaps with a bit of research we could determine the others, but we’re not going to. We of Gringotts pride ourselves on maintaining our clients’ privacy.”

“Then… what do you require?”

“For the summoning of each set of weapons, we require eleven drops of each individual's blood and binding the weapons to them will need another five drops.” Rocksplitter answered.

“That’s it? But… you said Harry would be involved? Doesn’t everyone else need to be involved, too?”

“They don’t need to, if they wish to, certainly they may be involved in the process. But I understood it that some of your… people are legally classified as deceased? If they set foot on goblin-controlled ground, that will be reversed.” Rocksplitter warned.

Hermione tilted her head in thought. “What if… what if they didn’t? Set foot on goblin ground, I mean?”

“I don’t follow, Miss Granger.” Rocksplitter admitted.

“I have an expanded capacity trunk, what if they were present and involved, but remained physically in the trunk, not stepping out of it. Would that classify as not setting foot on goblin-controlled ground?”

“I… I’m unsure, I would have to check but it is quite possible.” Rocksplitter hummed.

“How long does it take for each person? Do they have to understand why their blood is being take? Do they have to be alive? I mean can you use older blood, that’s been under stasis or dried?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. I can check but why the latter option?”

“I was thinking about Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black. If we were to end up on the same world as him, it wouldn’t take us long to find him. Point-me’s, Patronus messages and brooms would hasten that. But if all of **_us_** have goblin-made weapons and **_he_** doesn’t, that leaves him at a decided disadvantage, if we need to use them. In addition to this, two of our… residents are under heavy sedation and while we’ve repaired the physical damage they sustained, our healer felt it better for them, to sedate them until their minds catch up with their repaired bodies. Others are children, quite young yet, however, as children have a habit of doing, they will grow up eventually.”

“Ah. I see, yes, that does make sense. I shall speak to one of the armourists. The actual process is reasonably quick, a few minutes for the blood to be drawn and spread on the altar, a chant by an armourist, an oath from the recipient that they will never use these blades to promote evil or deliberately harm the innocent. Then you’re free to go. Five minutes at most.”

“Is it possible to alter the oath, slightly?”

“In what way?”

“To never deliberately harm an innocent that may be saved, or unless one will come to **_greater_** harm, if left **_un_** harmed by our blades.” Hermione grimaced slightly, remembering hexing Harry in the face to disguise him from the snatchers.

“It might be better to let you write your own oaths for the binding…” Rocksplitter hummed. “I’ll talk to the armourist. Mr Potter should be about finished by now, if you were to return here in an hour, I’ll have more information or at the least have convinced an armourist to speak with you.”

“That sounds fine, Rocksplitter, I have a couple of things still to do in the alley. What’s the balance on the Nest vault?” Hermione nodded, then asked.

“The Nest? Let me see… Ah, here we are… ʛ108,456. §14. κ26. You’ve spent a lot of gold in the last two months, Miss Granger.” Rocksplitter’s look was almost admiring.

Hermione grinned. “I had some **_very_** enthusiastic help.”

“I can imagine.” The goblin chuckled. He also stood and ushered Hermione towards the door. “Mr Potter has to pass through the foyer, if you wish to wait for him, that would be an ideal place.”

“No.” Said Hermione. “He knows I’ll drop into the DMLE later this evening. I’ll get my errands done and come back in an hour.” She nodded to the goblin and headed for WWW, she needed to have a quick word with the residents of the Nest, they needed to know about this.

Leaving Gringotts much later that afternoon, Hermione was debating whether to have dinner with Harry or to go to Hogwarts and visit Harry afterwards. But that decision was taken from her by a Patronus message from Professor Flitwick.

“Miss Granger?” That the tiny Professor’s Patronus was a raven seemed quite apt. “We have a matter that requires your attendance quite urgently. Would you be so kind as to floo to the Headmaster’s office?” Nothing more was said, and Hermione wondered what had alarmed the new Headmaster so much that he’d send a Patronus, rather than a Professor.

When she emerged from the fireplace, she was greeted by Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid.

“I’m here.” She said redundantly. “What’s wrong?”

“For a change? I don’t think it is wrong.” McGonagall pursed her lips to avoid smiling.

Hagrid swept a cloth off of an odd shaped item. Hermione noticed the item to be a cage, before the contents of the cage caught her attention.

“Hedwig?!” She gasped.

“Hoot!” Came the reply.


	12. Chapter 12

_When she emerged from the fireplace, she was greeted by Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid._

_“I’m here.” She said redundantly. “What’s wrong?”_

_“For a change? I don’t think it is wrong.” McGonagall pursed her lips to avoid smiling._

_Hagrid swept a cloth off of an odd shaped item. Hermione noticed the item to be a cage, before the contents of the cage caught her attention._

_“Hedwig?!” She gasped._

_“Hoot!” Came the reply._

“Hedwig?” Hermione asked again. “That’s really Hedwig?”

 ** _“Hoot!”_** The sound was quite indignant.

“Sorry, Hedwig.” Hermione automatically replied before blinking. “Well that’s that. How? How did she survive?” 

McGonagall handed over a letter. “This might help.” The paper was just that paper, a sheet torn from an exercise book if Hermione was any judge. “It was rolled into a small tube tied onto her leg.”

_To whomever it concerns_

_This is a beautiful bird and if it weren’t for her well-handled, sweet nature and otherwise excellent condition, the authorities would have been notified about her injuries._

_Now that I've said that, let me tell you what I know of her._

_She’s a magnificent snowy owl, not overly large but well proportioned. Approximately 7-8 years of age, my initial estimate was 4-5, but x-rays prove she’s older. And as I said, in otherwise excellent condition and well handled._

_She was found just outside Liverpool and brought to me at the Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre just north of the City. I’ve had fifty years of experience in handling owls and other raptors, but this lady didn’t need any of that, she knew I was trying to help her and has been on her best behaviour since her arrival._

_As a result, I’m fairly confident she belongs to someone who went to Hogwarts. But I don’t have access to their treatments and have done the best I can. I don’t think she holds the lack of potions against me, though._

_If you feel the need to have an exact breakdown of her injuries and treatments, please contact me at –_

_John Meadowes_

_#3 Back O’ the Town Lane_

_Ince, Blundell._

_Liverpool._

_Ph, 51 255 6735_

_Look after her and try not to feed her too much bacon, she really likes it but it’s not good for her._

_JM._

“Oh, my…” Hermione sighed in pleasure. “Hedwig, you beautiful owl, would you like to go straight to Harry or would you like to be a surprise?”

“Hoot?” It was clearly a question and a demanding one at that. She'd tried to find her wizard, but had been unable to locate him, so had come to his preferred nest to wait for him, knowing that one of the nest elders would notify him of her arrival.

“Harry’s okay, he’s at the Ministry. But…” Hermione wasn’t sure how intelligent Hedwig really was, but on the off chance that she was Harry’s familiar and understood what he did, Hermione thought it best to explain everything to her. “How about you come with me and we find a couple of mice for you and have a little chat?”

“Hoot!” The owl pecked at the cage door and it opened, Hedwig ruffled her feathers and leapt out, a broad stroke of her wings and Hermione held out an arm for her to land on.

“Excellent, Hedwig. Hagrid? Have you checked Hedwig over, has this John done a good job or is there more treatment still to come?”

“Na, she’s good, could always do with a vitalising potion, most owls need ‘em after they’s bin injured.” Hagrid shook his head. “But she’s good, all the breaks has healed well. You can find some mice in me storage hut, if you like.”

“Thanks, Hagrid. In that case, Hedwig and I need to have a little girl-to-girl chat. If you’ll excuse us?” Hermione said to the Professors.

“Of course, Miss Granger.” Professor Flitwick beamed at them both. “You sort that out and we’ll see you for breakfast. Yes?”

“Of course, Professor.” Hermione smiled and left the office, well aware of the portraits and paintings. “Let’s go find you some mice and I’ll explain, okay?”

“Hoot.” Hedwig flipped her wings and jumped to Hermione’s shoulder as they walked through the empty corridors of the school.

From the windows of the Headmaster’s office, four people watched as a young woman with an owl riding on her shoulder, emerged from under the clock tower and crossed the timber suspension bridge that was in place of the still unrepaired bridge that led to the owlery and down to Hagrid’s hut.

“Well…” Professor McGonagall smiled. “It seems that Potter’s luck is still going strong.”

“Hey, Mione.” Harry greeted Hermione as she entered his interview room.

“Hello, Harry. How’d you go with the armourist? Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, Professor Flitwick sent a Patronus, there was an injured owl that turned up at Hogwarts. And Fawkes gave me some tears a few weeks ago, we weren’t sure if they were going to be needed or not.”

“Is it alright?” Harry still missed his beautiful Hedwig and he thought a part of him always would.

“Yes, she’s fine, just waiting on her owner to collect her.” Hermione so wanted to tell Harry that the owl was Hedwig, but after talking with Charlie, between them, they’d realised that Hedwig was definitely Harry’s familiar and not just a ‘pet’, as she understood almost everything that Hermione and Charlie had told her. It had been her choice to wait with the others that were staying in the Nest and she puffed up in pride when told the Nest had been named in her honour.

“Great. And I went good with the armourist, too. I think…” Harry winced as he added the disclaimer.

“What did you get?”

“I got a sword, a dagger and a pair of… the goblins called them ulak knives, but instead of being made with metal, they make them from the fangs of a basilisk that’s permanently transmuted into steel using some really old and highly secret alchemy process.”

“Ooh, make sure you don’t cut yourself on them, then.” Hermione grimaced.

“I don’t have to worry about that. Something to do with the combination of potion used in the alchemy process and the blood binding means that I’m immune to any venom they might contain and in fact, unless I want them to be venomous, they’ll just be steel blades. Apparently, they’ve been infused with my blood and magic, and my intent when I use them, will determine how poisonous they are.” Harry replied.

“Oh, wow. That’s handy.” Hermione blinked a few times, the pair of fighting daggers and bow that the armourist had given her, weren’t anything like that. Her daggers were just simple steel blades and while her bow _**was**_ bone, it was a dragon's rib, not a basilisk's one.

“Yeah.” Harry grinned. “They even gave me the harnesses for them. They’re a cross between holsters and a hanging frame, but they use magnets to hold the blades in place, instead of the blade going into a holster’s pocket.”

“Hmm. Some of the museums that display decorative knives and swords use magnets to hold the blades.” Hermione nodded.

“Much the same.” Harry agreed. “Are we ready for Thursday? Did Croaker ever find out what time Sirius went in?”

“He did. Five passed two in the morning.”

“Wow, we got Sirius out of bed before lunch?” Harry gasped.

“No, Harry, I’m sorry, but no. They hadn’t gone to bed yet.” Hermine shook her head.

“Oh, well, it was nice to imagine it.” Harry laughed. “I’m not sure how McGonagall survived having Siri in Gryffindor for seven years.”

“There’s days where she’s not sure either.” Hermione laughed with him.

“But we’re ready?” Harry let his laughter die away.

“Yes, we’re ready. Your trunk is ready and fully stocked. I haven’t given it to you, as Kingsley suggested keeping it out of reach of people like Umbitch.” Harry nodded at Hermione’s comment. “Same with your clothes. The weapons? Not so important as no-one but you can use them anyway. Two wands in holsters. And the rucksack? It’s got a tent, a travel lunch box, which holds five meals, a fine blanket and a mixed first-aid kit. We thought about putting the trunk in with that but decided that if the rucksack was taken from you, you’d lose everything. So, we decided to use an Auror special, the buckle of the belt that you’ll be wearing covers a tiny mokeskin pouch, or pocket really, just big enough to hold the trunk.”

“Nice.” Harry nodded. “What about the clothes?”

“Plain black muggle-style fatigues, they’re not quite battle robes, but they are wizard-made and do have charms applied. Temperature control, rip and tear resistant, water repellent and anti-rub. To name a few. The boots are Ironbelly hide, with auto-fit charms. The belt is also Ironbelly with a mokeskin pouch behind the buckle. The coat is Horntail, in the style of a muggle trench like Moody’s. Wand holsters, one for each forearm, are Horntail hide and charmed with a dragon-load of anti-muggle charms. The rucksack is Hebridean Black with the same charms. Personally, I suggest that you not wear all your Gringotts weapons, but of course the choice is yours. If you do wear them, add some temporary notice-me-nots.”

“I’ll only be wearing the dagger and the sword. The armourist made me a harness with a holster for my staff and a scabbard for the sword, it’s worn over my clothes and attaches to a belt and straps around each leg, just above the knee and just below my butt. However, Kingsley suggested shrinking the sword and wearing it as a pendant, at least into the Veil.”

“That would work, if you needed it instantly, you’ve got it right there, with no need to open a pouch, pull out a trunk and enlarge it, just to get to a weapon.” Hermione nodded.

“Exactly.” Harry nodded as well. “The other thing he suggested is to take a dreamless sleep potion about mid-afternoon and to try and sleep until about midnight. Have a light ‘breakfast’ and a shower before getting dressed in what I’ll be wearing into the Veil. Mr Malfoy was through just before lunch, to tell me that I’m allowed to have two people in addition to those that advised me during the trial.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So… if you’re seeing Ron tomorrow evening… and he’s… you know…?”

“Not being a jealous prat, like normal?” Hermione twisted her lips.

“Yeah, that. If he’s not... I’d like him to come. Him and Hagrid.” Harry said.

“Hagrid?”

“When you all came to Surrey to get me, he said that 'he’d brought me to Surrey, it only seemed right that he’d be the one to take me away from it’. Right?”

“Right.” Hermione nodded.

“Well, I was thinking about that and I realised that Hagrid was the one to introduce me to the wizarding world and he should be here to see me leave it.” Harry’s voice hitched before he got it back under control.

“Oh, Harry…” Hermione closed her eyes at the strength in his voice. “He’d like that very much.”

“I’m going to do the training memories tonight, Robards said he and healer Lincoln are going to stay with me while I absorb them, just to make sure that nothing goes wrong.” Harry assured her.

“They know what they’re doing.” She nodded. Kingsley was staying with the refugees tonight for the same reason.

“That’s what Kingsley said.” Harry gave her a small smile.

“You’ll be fine. But if you’ve got that coming tonight, I should leave you to it.” She hugged him and moved towards the door.

“Thanks, Mione.”

The collection of daybeds filled the Nest’s town pavilion and Hermione was amused that she could almost pick which one belonged to whom.

The twins’ beds were covered in thick fluffy blankets that had beaters’ bats knocking bludgers about, all over them. Then there were the quidditch queens’ beds, their blankets almost matched the twins’ but instead of beaters’ bats and bludgers, there were quaffles darting through the folds and the cushions were slinky velvet in all different shades of purple for Angelina, pink for Katie and red for Alicia. Colin and Dennis had Gryffindor blankets that matched, but Colin had red with a gold lion and Dennis had gold with a red lion. Lavender’s were as girly as Hermione expected them to be, fluffy velvet cushions and a patchwork quilt in different shades of her namesake. Parvati and Padma, like Dennis and Colin, had the same colours but in opposition to each other.

And so it went on, each person’s bed clearly identifiable by their covers. The only ones that she was unsure about were Neville, Euan and Natalie, all three had simple blankets in warm browns and cool greens.

As each person entered the pavilion, Kingsley ordered them to their beds before mounting the little platform and addressing them all.

“First of all, I want to say… how proud I am to have known and trained you all. I have three memory phials for each of you, different things for different people. But the first memory is the same for everyone. Occlumency lessons. This will teach you how to sort and store your memories, how to access older memories and how to stop outsiders from gaining access to your mind. On a side note, those that study occlumency and keep working at it, are the most likely to be able to throw off the _imperius_ curse. The second memory is from Gringotts and I have no idea what each contains, beyond the general understanding that it is a training memory specific to the weapons that Gringotts gifted to you. The third memory is that of a trainee Auror that has just completed the Gauntlet.” He paused while they whispered. “Not everyone is getting all of these memories, just yet. The first and second, yes, of course. But the third memory I don’t want anyone under seventeen absorbing them, that means Luna is the youngest receiving a third memory tonight. I will be leaving them here, Miss Sissy will retain them in the hospital until the younger residents reach the appropriate age. And of course, Teddy won’t be getting any, until he’s ten. Headley, you might be eight, physically, but you still retain the memories of having been older, so Miss Sissy feels that you’ll cope quite well and that occlumency will actually help you as far as studying is concerned.”

Hermione stepped up beside Kingsley. “Kingsley is also leaving a selection of memories for us, one of which will teach us how to create our own training memories. Amongst other things.” Hermione was going to be one of four to receive four phials, she'd also be getting the memory of how to convert a standard memory into a training memory, as would Bill, Remus and Snape.

“If anyone doesn’t want to do this now, just speak up, the memories will be stored in the hospital until you’re ready.” Kingsley offered, but was answered by a round of no’s. “Alright, Miss Sissy and Hermione will bring the first phial to each of you. I’d like you to take it and lay back, some people find absorbing these types of memories easier than others, it has nothing to do with intelligence, rather how your mind works. The second phials will be handed out once Miss Sissy believes that you’re passed the point of having complications. The same for those receiving a third or fourth phial.” He waited while the two women moved between the beds, handing each person a phial of glistening silver memories. “To absorb…” He began to explain to them how to introduce the memories into their minds.

Hermione sighed, it was going to be a long night. Thank god for her time turner, at least Kingsley would be able to get some rest before his shift at the Ministry.

Morning came, well before anyone was really ready for it. Today was Harry’s last day in the wizarding world. Today was **_their_** last day in the wizarding world.

There had been many quiet conversations about the people they’d leave behind. It was sad that very few of those would be missed. Oh, yes, they were loved, but they wouldn’t necessarily be missed.

The Weasleys were just one example of that. Lavender’s family were another. Her mother had been approached by Professor McGonagall and the woman had the gall to say that Lavender had thrown away her life for nothing, she’d been beautiful and vivacious and now she was a monster and her father was instigating the process to disinherit her. Oliver’s father was a little better, but not much, his comment of Oliver walking away from Puddlemere to defend Hogwarts would be the end of his quidditch career, had the refugees shaking their heads. But it was Katie’s family that were the worst. Within seconds of hearing that she been attacked, not even waiting to hear if she’d been turned, her father and grandfather had disowned her, cutting her completely adrift.

Upon hearing this, Harry had sent them a scathing howler and offered Katie and anyone else that wanted it, a position in his family. It had taken an entire day to hash out the details, but Katie and Euan joined the Black family, while Oliver, Colin and Dennis joined Headley as members of the Potter family. Hermione and Luna became Weasleys when Bill brought them into his family. Padma and Parvati joined the Malfoy family. Remus gained the other two quidditch girls and Seamus. Snape was the surprise, he became family to Natalie, Lavender and Justin. Neville had happily welcomed Dean and Lee into his family, knowing that his parents would understand the reasoning behind it, when told.

Breakfast was provided by the house elves under Kreacher’s direction. When they left, he was going to take over as the head elf for Hogwarts, as the last elf to hold that position had literally given his all for the school. After breakfast, those capable apparated those not capable to the flat that Oliver had been renting in Bristol. They had one last day to buy up anything that interested them, although Hermione had warned them to stay clear of electronics, she’d said that boardgames and books were fine. Jewellery was another thing on the list of purchases, the higher the quality, the better the purchase. Watches, but only if they were mechanical or automatic.

Hermione planned to use the time turner and cover a massive amount of ground, that day. She wanted to speak to most of the shopkeepers in Technic Alley and a few in Hogsmeade, now that she knew how to separate a training memory from its originator, she was hoping that some of the artisans would share their memories with her, making sure that they knew these memories would be going through the veil with Harry and happy to make an oath to that effect. Then she wanted to hit all the big yarn stores and the magical fabric shops in every major magical shopping district in the UK, she’d never get the chance again. Plus, there was one last chance to visit her parents. They’d never remember her, obliviates on muggles were permanent according to Croaker, not something Hermione had known. But thanks to Harry claiming the Peverell pensieve… and hadn’t McGonagall been angry about Dumbledore claiming it was his… and emptying it of all the memories that Dumbledore had dumped into it, and Colin’s obsession with anything photographic, they were now able to take photos from a pensieve projected image.

Upon hearing of her plans, Draco had sighed and after a sidelong look at his mother, had volunteered to accompany Hermione on her expedition, making sure to wear his glamour ring. It wouldn’t do to have his father spot him.

Late afternoon saw Hermione and Draco sitting at the clearing near the shack, again. Draco was placing phials in a storage cabinet reading the information on each tag to Hermione, who was recording that information in a ledger, as they went. When they finished, the pair sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Draco's stomach growled. Breakfast was twelve hours earlier by the clock but for them, about nineteen had passed with the aid of the time turner.

“Well, that’s the memories and all your fabric and wool. What’s next?” Draco asked.

“There’s only one thing left before the veiling and that’s Ron.”

“Urgh… You’re on your own for that one.” Draco still had no fondness for the young Weasley, and he was praying that the redhead wouldn’t ask to join them. He wasn’t sure he could cope with that.

“Yes. I’ve got to do this alone.” Hermione smiled at him and stood. “Let’s get this into the hospital, so I can get this meeting over with.”


	13. Chapter 13

_“Well, that’s the memories and all your fabric and wool. What’s next?” Draco asked._

_“There’s only one thing left before the veiling and that’s Ron.”_

_“Urgh… You’re on your own for that one.” Draco still had no fondness for the young Weasley, and he was praying that the redhead wouldn’t ask to join them. He wasn’t sure he could cope with that._

_“Yeah, I’ve got this.” Hermione smiled at him and stood. “Let’s get this into the hospital, so I can get this meeting over with.”_

“Hello, Hermione.” Ron gave Hermione a hesitant smile as she entered the parlour he’d reserved at the Leaky Cauldron.

“Hello, Ron.” Hermione ignored her nerves and settled in an armchair that sat in front of the small grated fireplace.

“How are you?” Ron asked, his fingers twitching.

“I’m well, nervous about tomorrow and Harry’s sentence being carried out but… I’m well, otherwise.”

“Is everything ready for that? I mean… I read in the Prophet that you’ve been getting a trunk ready for him?”

“I have.” She nodded. “It’s ready to go. Kingsley suggested I keep it with me, to avoid someone like Umbitch getting their hands on it.” Ron nodded rapidly. “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been good. And she’s browned off that she can’t attend the… um… the veiling, we’re calling it. Only those that were present when he was sentenced get to be there.”

“Bugger. I was hoping to say goodbye.” Ron slumped back in his seat. “I know I haven’t been a good friend, but I was hoping to part on good terms.”

“You will.” Hermione said but didn’t explain more than that as Ron kept talking.

“I’ve been seeing a mind healer, you know. Losing Fred, that… it shook me. It also made me realise what Harry meant, he might have had some gold, but I was truly rich. The twins might have pranked us into insensibility, but if we needed them, they were right there. I called Harry my brother, but I didn’t treat him like one. When he needed me, I walked away.”

“But you came back. You always did.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t change the fact that I abandoned him when he needed me most. Like I said, I’ve been seeing a mind healer and he’s helping me to deal with it. It’s a work in progress, he calls it, I’ll be seeing him for a year or two. But eventually, I’ll get better. He thinks I should have been seeing someone since first year, that McGonagall’s chess set knocked something loose that shouldn’t have been loose, and the brains in the DoM in fifth year didn’t help.”

“Ah…” Hermione exclaimed silently.

“Yeah.” Ron shrugged. “But it didn’t happen, and I have to deal with it now. One reason I haven’t asked to see you or Harry until now, I wasn’t sure I could sit here and not blame him for Fred. Healer Staunton had to give me a slow-release version of a calming draught before you arrived, otherwise I’d probably be a right mess about now.”

“I did think you were handling this a bit better than I’d expected.” Hermione allowed.

“Oh, yeah.” Ron laughed quietly. “Just a bit.” He picked up a bottle of butterbeer and sipped at it. “Do you think there’s any chance I can see Harry before he… goes into the veil? Or could you give him something for me? I’ve some letters for him, from me, Ginny, mum and dad. I know they have to be tested by the DMLE, there’s nothing on them. Plus, I got him a gift, it’s only a desk set, but I made it myself. It’s holly and bog oak with silver trim. Uncle Geraint walked me through making each piece, he’s a cabinet maker, and he’s offered me an apprenticeship, he’ll teach me how to pick the woods and inlay decorations and everything.” Ron was quietly excited, the calming potion subduing him slightly.

“Tell me about it?” Hermione wasn’t used to seeing Ron interested in anything but quidditch or food.

“I was talking to Aunt Maisy and Uncle Hector, while I was waiting to see how mum was, and I said I wanted something for Harry, something for him to take with him, because I knew that I couldn’t go with him. But I didn’t know _**what**_ I wanted. He had money and you were doing the shopping, so I knew it had to be something really different. It was Uncle Hector that suggested I approach Uncle Geraint, ask him to help me make something for Harry. Uncle Geraint suggested the desk set, he makes desks and stasis cabinets for a living, so a desk set isn’t his specialty, it’s more like a hobby, for when he wanted something small to work on. He walked me through each step, choosing the woods, designing the look, making each component, setting the inlays and how to do the finishing polishes. He sent me to Aunt Muriel to get help with cutting the crystal for the inkwell, she’s brilliant at it and agreed to teach me enough to make the inkwells, myself. Then I went to his friend Geoffrey to make the silver work for the inkwell and the knobs and anywhere else it was needed. He also taught me how to add the ink charms, the inkwell itself is small but it's expanded inside and holds over a gallon of ink and the ink will never dry out, you can change the colour of the ink by tapping one of the jewelled flowers on the inkwell’s silver inlay. I chose blue, green, dark red and black for Harry, and Geoffrey helped me with the spellwork.” Ron pulled out a box, roughly the size and shape of a shoebox but upside down, and laid it on the coffee table between them, tapping the box with his wand to release the sticking charm that held it closed.

He lifted the main section to reveal an elegant pale wooden box, the main body being a single drawer with a silver owl feather as the drawer handle and an inlaid trim in rich black timber. In the top of the box there were a series of indentations that were outlined in the same black wood, and when Ron opened the drawer and began to place various items, each indentation had an item that clearly fitted it. Across the rear of the lid was space for a two-toned timber blotter and in front of that were, from left to right, a silver holder for pencils or oddments, a silver quill holder and a crystal inkwell with a silver filigree sleeve/holder. Each piece was simple but well-made and carefully polished.

“Wow…” Hermione whispered. “That’s beautiful.” A part of her was lusting after it and she really didn’t want to give it to Harry.

“Thanks.” Ron beamed. “I loved making it, it was great, I could see the pieces coming together with every visit. Uncle Geraint has offered me an apprenticeship.” He said again. “He thinks I could be as good as Uncle Tristan who was commissioned to make a desk set for the queen’s coronation.”

“Wow…” Hermione said again, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline.

“I know…” Ron seemed as stunned as Hermione was. “Percy was in shock when we told him. Mind you, he’s already put in an order for a set, he wants one made from the remnants of the old Burrow, he managed to salvage some pieces of our old writing desk and its hutch and a piece from the fireplace lintel. Mum only bought the desk because Percy asked for it.”

“Talking of Percy… how did the signing go? Do you know?” Hermione was fairly sure Ron would know.

“Not what mum and Perce were hoping for, but pretty much how I expected it to go. George… without Fred he’s… lost. He signed the whole shop over, said that without Fred, it meant nothing, he left Perce his notebooks, ledgers and keys. Said he was going to stay with Lee for a while and was gone before mum could object. Mum started to rant, but the healer from St. Mungo's pulled her up and reminded her, how she’d felt when Fabian and Gideon had died? That was pretty much how George felt, now. That shut her up and she didn’t speak for the rest of the meeting. I think she’s going to try and speak to George about it later, it won’t do her any good, though, George was the stubborn one, she’d got no chance.” Ron prattled.

The rest of their evening consisted of light-hearted conversation, mostly about Harry and what they hoped he would find, wherever it was he was going. But there was no regret in Hermione’s mind that Ron hadn’t been told, even though he was getting help, he was a long way from being accepting of some things. Werewolves weren’t so bad, but he wouldn’t understand Harry welcoming Dudley, or Headley as he was now called, as a member of Harry’s family, nor would he welcome the Malfoys or Snape. No, Ron not knowing, wasn’t such a bad thing.

As she was about to leave, Hermione remembered Harry’s request.

“Ron?”

“Yeah?” Ron paused halfway through putting his jacket on, one arm pointing almost straight up and the other holding the jacket’s shoulder over his head.

“Harry’s sentence is being carried out at five passed two. He would like you to be there.” She said.

“But…? You said only those that were at the trial can go?” Ron frowned.

“Yeah, it’s not open to the public, but Harry was allowed to invite two guests. He’s for asked you and Hagrid to be there. Hagrid was the one to bring him into the wizarding world, he should be there when Harry leaves it. And you were his best friend, you were there in the beginning and you should be there at the end.” She whispered.

“Oh, god…” Ron let a tear slide down his cheek, before taking a deep breath. “Where do I have to be and at what time?”

“Meet me at the phone box at… um… midnight?”

Ron took a deep breath. “I can do that. Dad can’t come in all the way with me, but can he come to the Ministry?”

“Of course, he can, Ron. From what I gather, only the DoM is restricted.” Hermione had her ‘thinking look’ on her face. “I might even be able to swing a few minutes with Harry for him, I’m not sure. You? Yes, but I’m not sure about your dad, it depends on who’s the Auror on duty.”

“Cool.”

“But…” She had to warn him. “There’s no chance of getting anyone else in to see him.”

“No.” Ron shook his head. “I wouldn’t expect it and well… mum and Ginny are still staying at St. Mungo's during the week. There’s only dad and me staying with Uncle Gareth. Or rather, he's staying with us at the new Burrow.”

“Good. If you’re bringing your father, meet me at the public entrance to the DMLE, midnight still.”

“Do you want to take the box? Or should I bring it?” Ron looked at the box that held the desk set.

“You bring it. You made it, you should give it to him.” Hermione said.

“Okay.” Ron gently gathered it up and re-applied the sticking charm to seal the box closed, before shrinking it and placing it in his pocket. “Alright. I’ll see you in a few hours.” He nodded and hurried out the door.

Hermione too a few minutes to contemplate what was coming. Then she took a deep breath and like Ron, left the room. She was heading back to Hogwarts to meet McGonagall, who was the only person to not have moved into the trunk, to date. The transfiguration Professor was going to accompany Hagrid to the DMLE before meeting with Croaker and entering the trunk, and then the Nest, before Harry got to see the finished trunk.

Kingsley greeted her as she arrived at the DMLE, his smile tight and strained.

“Hello, Hermione.” He said.

“Good evening, Kingsley. How’s Harry?”

“Still asleep. Hagrid arrived a few minutes ago with McGonagall.” Kingsley answered. “I’ve put him in the DMLE waiting room. Croaker is providing office space for you to use as a time turning destination.”

“Oh, excellent, I was going to ask for the use of your office.” Hermione sighed in relief.

“No, you can’t risk that, I’m under surveillance in there. You head down now and leave enough time for your ‘turned’ self to get settled.”

“I’ll do that but…? Ron’s coming, if he arrives before I get back, can you take him in to sit with Hagrid?” Hermione asked.

“Of course.” Kingsley nodded and watched as Hermione headed for the DoM.

On reaching Croaker’s office she knocked on the door and waited for him to open it.

“Good timing.” The Unspeakable opened the door but stood in it. “Trunk please.”

Hermione pulled the shrunken trunk from her bag and handed it over. “I’m in there?” She lifted her head as though to look over his shoulder.

“Yes. Word of warning?” He passed the trunk behind him and a barely seen hand took it and retreated from sight. “Once Potter’s gone but before you leave the veil chamber, Umbridge is going to try and arrest you. Use the turner. It’s almost reached its limit so it’s going to be fractionally delayed. Use that, let her think that you’re not the one in control. Let her think it’s a portkey or something like it, wrap it around your wrist, not over your head, it will affect the vision of you that we see but not the actual process. Three turns will put you back in the chamber approximately half an hour ago. I brought you to my office immediately, no-one saw you. You said that Harry wanted to have a look at the trunk and show Weasley and Hagrid, so, McGonagall has suggested, and I agreed, that the entrance to the Nest be glamoured to look like an empty space at night. Tell Potter that it’s connected to the day/night cycle of the location that the trunk is in, he’ll have to wait until daylight to see it. However, the glamour will only be in effect until the trunk is sealed, you can lift it when he closes and seals the trunk. You also said that the trunk won’t be examined prior to Potter entering the veil, as he’ll have two Aurors, Shacklebolt and Robards, inspect the trunk while you’re showing him, neither of them will comment on the Nest’s glamour, even though both of them will recognise that it **_is_** a glamour.”

“Croaker?” McGonagall called from inside the office. “We’re ready.”

“Wait here.” Croaker told Hermione and retreated back into the office, he emerged in a few seconds. “By the time you get back to Potter, your ‘turned’ self and McGonagall will be inside the Nest and you did say that nothing other than Umbridge happens and that’s not until after Potter enters the veil, and you got back here in once piece.” He handed her back the trunk and then assured that, “I’ll be in the veil chamber, Shacklebolt will stay with you, Weasley and Hagrid for the duration.”

“Thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.” Hermione let a single tear run down her cheek.

“My dear, I’m an old man, I’m glad I could do something that doesn’t have to be a secret, forever.”

“Just until morning?”

“Just until morning.” He agreed.

Hermione tucked the trunk back into her bag and gave the old unspeakable a smile before turning and leaving, she could show him the respect he deserved, by not breaking down in tears in his hallway. It took her only a few minutes to retrace her steps to the DMLE entrance.

Kristen Timberly met her at the door and gave her a sad smile.

“Morning, Miss Granger. Mr Potter’s awake, but his guests haven’t joined him, they wanted to wait until you arrived. Mr Arthur Weasley has been given permission to stay, but he still won’t be permitted to attend the DoM.”

“Thank you, Kristen.” Hermione smiled back, a tired and slightly wobbly smile, but still a smile. “I’ll collect them as I go passed the waiting area.”

Down the hall and around the corner, Hermione reached the door to the DMLE’s waiting area. “Hi.” Hermione nodded to a second trainee, Trainee Laurence, whose given name she had never been told.

“Good morning, Miss Granger.” The young witch nodded to her and opened the door.

“Hello, Ron, Arthur. Hi, Hagrid. Sorry I’m late, I had to speak to the Unspeakables about Harry’s trunk for a moment. Come on, Harry’s up and about, let’s go and annoy him.” She gave them tight smiles.

“Sure.” Ron was the only to speak. Arthur's jaw was tightly clenched, and Hagrid was almost in tears.

“This way.” Hermione led them out the door and down the hall to another door and when she knocked on it, Kingsley opened it.

“You’re here, good, he’s getting antsy.” The black Auror warned and stepped back, holding the door for them to enter.

“We’ll keep him occupied, don’t fret.” Hermione threw him a subtle wink. “Harry Potter you better be dressed, you’ve got guests.” She called out but stayed standing in the doorway.

“Mione?” Harry stuck his head out of the adjoining bathroom. “Guests? Me? Why?”

“Well, I thought you’d like to have breakfast with friends, but if I’m wrong, I can send them away?”

 ** _“NO!”_** Harry yelled quickly, causing Ron and Arthur to smother a chuckle. “No.” He said again in a normal voice. “No, I’ll have guests.” He quickly stepped from the bathroom.

“I thought you were going to have a shower and get dressed?” Hermione huffed.

“I was, but Kingsley figured I should leave that until the last moment. So, I just got dressed in my old clothes.” Harry answered.

“Oh, okay. Have you eaten, yet?”

“Nope, I was hoping you would join me?”

“Harry, you know I will.” Hermione answered, meaning more than just for breakfast, but he wasn’t to know that, yet. “Are you ready for visitors?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Harry sighed.

“Come on in, guys.” Hermione entered the room and held the door open.

Ron burst through the door in much the same way he had when he’d turned up at Privet Drive, the night the Order had last collected Harry.

“Harry!” The redhead engulfed him in a typical ‘Weasley hug™’.

“Ron!” Harry beamed at his friend.

“Hey, mate. Sorry I haven’t been round, I’ve been working with a mind healer, St. Mungo's said I shook something loose playing McGonagall’s chess set in first year. I’m working on it, but it’s going to take a while.” Ron told him.

“Oh, wow.” Harry gasped.

“Yeah, I’ll get there, but like I told Hermione, it’s a work in progress.” Rod shrugged.

“Hullo, Harry.” Hagrid’s booming voice dragged Harry’s attention from Ron.

“Hagrid.” Harry’s smile just grew as he was swamped in the half-giant’s arms.

“Alright, there?”

“Yeah…” Harry had three of his most favourite people with him, how could he not be alright? Or as alright as he was going to get, anyway.

“Hello, Harry.” Arthur greeted him from the doorway. 

“Hi, Mr Weasley.” Harry threw the man a smile.

“Breakfast, Harry. You need something to eat.” Kingsley told him. “Then Hermione will show you your trunk and I’ll show you how to lock it behind your belt buckle.”

“Cool.” Harry led them to the table as food began to appear.

“It’s a little plainer than you might like, but we don’t know how you’re going to react going into the veil.” Kingsley warned.

“It’s fine, Kingsley, plain’s easy. I don’t want to be sick on the other side.” Harry just smiled, he wasn't very hungry, nerves were getting the better of him. He’d pretty much accepted that this was the last time he was going to see these people. And while it hurt, he knew that they’d be fine, be alive and well. He’d have his memories and his photos. Asking for anything more was… an exercise in disappointment. He’d miss them, but the veil was really his only option for keeping his memories. Losing them wasn’t an option. It was the thought of walking into the arch, willingly, that was making his stomach act like it was holding a herd of hippogriffs.

Half an hour later they stood in the main room of Harry’s trunk, Kingsley and Robards unobtrusive, behind them.

“Talk me through it, Mione.” Harry directed.

“Clockwise from the entrance is a potions’ store cupboard and ingredient storage, next is a potions lab. Then a vault with all your gold and stuff from Gringotts, followed by a storage space, it’s got some brooms and quidditch stuff as well as all sorts of odd things, furniture, paintings, garden stuff, blankets etc. If it doesn’t come under clothes, food or things you can buy in a grocery store, that’s where it is. Then next few are food stores, the first one is all ready-made meals, the others are… pretty much your own supermarket.” As she described each one, she tapped a symbol burnt into the doorframe and the interior lit with balls of bluebell flames.

“Anti-clockwise from the door? There’s a bathroom, a laundry and a kitchen.” Each was lit and shown inspected by the Aurors. “This is a bedroom, it has a walk-in wardrobe and an en-suite bathroom.” She waited while the Aurors inspected it and stepped back out. “This is a library. Ron? You have something for Harry?” She led them into a spacious library/office.

“Yep.” He pulled out the box and laid it on the huge desk once the room was lit. “One of the Aurors needs to check it out first.” Kingsley nodded Robards, who stepped forward and cast complicated charm that sent up a series of blue sparks.

“Clear.” Robards nodded and Ron opened the box to reveal the desk set he’d shown Hermione some hours earlier.

“Oh, wow… Ron that’s amazing.” Harry ran his fingers along the edges of the box.

“I got sommit to go wif it.” Hagrid pulled out a carefully wrapped box and handed it to Robards, who scanned it. When it showed only blue sparks, he handed it to Harry, who unwound the parchment to reveal a simple carboard box that when opened, held two stunning white feather quills and a series of interchangeable nibs. “They’s from your ‘Edwig, a pair o’ her tail feathers, they are. I had Scribulus put a quill grip on 'em, so’s you can change the nibs.”

Harry reverently ran his fingers along the spine of the feather and let a tear slide down his cheek.

“You’ll have a part of her forever, mate.” Ron whispered.

“Yeah…” Harry smiled sadly.

“The next two frames, Miss Granger?” Robards asked.

“This one is for clothes and shoes, if he can wear it, it’s in here. We went primarily with wizarding stuff, that was muggle styled. Mostly because muggle stuff doesn’t take charms well and we wanted everything to have auto-sizing charms and be wear resistant.” She showed a massive wardrobe that had aisle upon aisle of racks holding clothes. “We discovered that a wizard shirt can be permanently transfigured into a muggle styled shirt as long as we left it the same type of fabric and left the magic applied to it alone. Which is what we were aiming for.”

“And that one, Mione?” Harry nodded toward the darkened frame.

“That is the… let’s call it your flying space. It’s linked to the day/night cycle of the trunk’s location. We’re in London, it’s just after one in the morning, it dark outside, it’s dark in there.”

“Okay, what’s in there?” Ron asked.

“Besides space for Harry to fly?” Hermione asked rhetorically. “A quidditch pitch, a pavilion for barbeques, a ready-built house if he wants it.”

“So why didn’t you put Beaky in there?” Harry asked.

“There’s nothing for them to live on, prey-wise and they’re not used to fending for themselves without a little help from Hagrid.” Hermione replied.

“I’ve had Beaky since ‘e were a foal.” Hagrid said. “He never had to hunt, I’s always ‘ad sommit for him.”

“Okay.” Harry nodded.

“Harry? It’s getting on towards time for you to get ready.” Kingsley ended the tour.

“Indeed, it is. Miss Granger? I understand that you have Mr Potter’s clothes and bag?” Robards asked, casting a sidelong look at the Nest’s entrance, but made no comment on the glamoured frame.

“Yes, sir, I do. While Harry’s in the shower, I’ll put them out for him and pack up everything from his... from the interview room and place it in here. Most of it will go in the laundry, but some can go in the bedroom's wardrobe. Plus, I still need to show you the other compartment.”

“Other compartment?” Robards asked.

“Yes, sir. Let me grab the bag and Harry’s clothes and head out and I’ll show you.” Hermione went to the armchair in the middle of the trunk and picked up a box that sat on the seat and a rucksack that sat on the floor.

Outside the trunk, Hermione closed the door-like lid of the trunk and tapped it with her wand. “We didn’t activate any security on the trunk, primarily because there were a number of us working in it at any given time. What it does have are active muggle repellent and notice-me-not charms.” The trunk shrank to the size of a standard travel trunk and Hermione flipped the lock from the image of a vertical door to an image of an open trunk. “Inside here, we have a slightly expanded compartment. As you can see, we divided it up into sections. Clothes, a week’s worth, plus one set of dragonhide battle robes. A first aid kit, it has a few potions, but is predominantly muggle. A broom, not the firebolt from Sirius, that’s in the library with a few things from Grimmauld Place, but it is the latest that Nimbus has put out, a 2005. This box here is a traveller’s pantry, a kitchen cupboard under stasis, that holds three meals a day for twenty days. A chess set that Hagrid made Harry, with four sets of pieces, many muggles take their own chess sets when they travel. And couple of extra blankets.”

Robards studied them and nodded a few times, then stepped back, letting Hermione close the trunk and revert it back to be a door.

“And the bag?” Hermione laid it on the table. “A traveller’s lunch box, that holds five meals. A wizarding tent, empty but ready to use when you need it. A blanket. A change of clothes. A journal and a robe that’s a cross between a day robe and a trench coat.” Robards nodded again. “There’s also the weapons that he got from Gringotts, Harry won’t be wearing all of them, the ulak knives will be left in the trunk.”

“Good idea.” Robards agreed. “Wear the dagger and the shrunken sword.”

“And a wand on each arm.” Harry added.

“If something happens to them does that leave you without a backup?” Robards asked.

“No, there’s backup wands in the trunk, Hermione said she was going to put them on in the library, on a stand on the desk.” Harry replied.

“And I did.”

“Alight.” Robards hummed. “I’ll sign off on having inspected the trunk and its contents. Time you got showered and dressed, Mr Potter.” He ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

In the ten minutes that Harry took to shower and dress, Hermione packed the last of his things from the interview room and placed them where they needed to go, in the trunk. After Harry dressed the two Aurors showed Harry how to stow the trunk in the tiny mokeskin pocket behind his belt buckle.

Then it was time to go. Kingsley and Robards took Harry away and Timberly and Laurence came to escort Hermione, Ron and Hagrid down to the DoM. Arthur was permitted to follow them as far as the DoM’s waiting room and there he had to stay. But Hermione, Ron and Hagrid were ushered in and sat down in a viewing area. Hagrid sat to the far left on a heavily reinforced chair that had obviously been enlarged to cater to his size. Then Croaker, Kingsley and then Ron and Hermione.


	14. Chapter 14

_Then it was time to go. Kingsley and Robards took Harry away and Timberly and Laurence came to escort Hermione, Ron and Hagrid down to the DoM. Arthur was permitted to follow them as far as the DoM’s waiting room and there he had to stay. But Hermione, Ron and Hagrid were ushered in and sat down in a viewing area. Hagrid sat to the far left on a heavily reinforced chair that had obviously been enlarged to cater to his size. Then Croaker, Kingsley and then Ron and Hermione._

Ron leant towards Hermione. “How many?”

“How many what?” Hermione didn’t understand the question.

“I’m surprised you’re still over here, I thought you’d be down there with Harry.” Ron didn't answer, instead he looked over at the Veil's arch.

“Why do you say that?”

“I know you, Mione. You’re not going to let him go alone. Here.” Her handed her a shrunken box. “Put that in your bag. How many?” He asked again. “I know you’re going. George, I think he’s in this, along with Bill and Charlie. Maybe Neville and Luna. But after that? I don’t know.”

Hermione looked at Ron. “This is why I nagged at you at school, Ronald. You have an incredible brain, you just don’t use it often enough. And this is the one time, I wish you hadn’t.” She muttered.

“I’m not going to tell anyone. I might have had suspicions, but I had no proof, you just gave me that.” He grinned. “But you didn’t answer the question. How many?”

Hermione studied him for a few seconds before answering. “Well… besides me and Harry…?”

“Yes…?” Ron stared at her.

“Besides me and Harry, I’ve stashed over thirty people in his trunk.” She smiled cheekily.

“Thirty…? How the hell did you get… Wait… the flying space? They’re in the quidditch pitch?”

“No, right now, they’re all in the pavilion waiting for me.”

“Waiting for you? How are you…?”

“Same way I got about third year. Remember the hospital after we tried to rescue Sirius? Harry and I disappeared and then re-entered through the door?” Hermione didn’t give him the answer, but she did give him the clues to know what she meant.

“Let me guess, you snatched one from the DoM when we were here last?” Ron sighed.

“No, McGonagall gave me back the one I used in third year.”

“But… isn’t it all used up?”

“Almost. This will be the last trip. Croaker warned me that Umbitch is involved, so I need to make it look good. Once I’m gone, it will be too late for her to do anything.” She tucked the box into her bag and pulled out a box of her own. “Here, you take this, there’s letters in there for people. It should explain everything. I’m sorry, but involving you…?”

“No, I couldn’t have dealt with it. If I’d gone with you, there’d come a point where I’d blame Harry for me being there. I need to learn to accept the blame for my own actions and… well… I’m not there, yet. I kinda knew you were going to do something, not what, but something, so I stayed away, so I wouldn’t be tempted.”

“Yes, I figured that out after our little chat this evening.” Hermione paused when Robards and the two trainee Aurors escorted Harry into the chamber. “Time’s up. Wish me luck.” She gave Ron a lightning fast hug and sat back in her seat, pulling the time turner from her pocket and twisting it around her wrist, before turning the tiny hourglass three times and holding it in her hand.

Lucius Malfoy appeared as calm an as collected as ever, but Hermione could see the twitch in the muscle under his eye, he was not happy. Lady Augusta Longbottom looked out of sorts and ready to snap at someone. Torrance Ollivander glanced at each of them and stood, taking control of the session.

“Mr Potter, you have been convicted of a number of crimes under Mordred’s Law, and given three sentences to choose from. You chose the veil and we are here to see that sentence carried out. Various conditions were offered and accepted and Auror Robards has verified that everything you bear, meets those conditions. You also requested to enter the veil at the same time as your late godfather, Sirius Black, who perished here two years ago, today.” He turned to the witnesses. “The Unspeakables have established that the late Mr Black entered the veil as a result of a blood-boiling curse cast by escaped convict Bellatrix Lestrange, at precisely two hours and four minutes after midnight. We have approximately six minutes until that time. I offer you that time to say your farewells.” Hermione smiled at Ollivander's speech, Croaker had told her that it had actually been a _confundus_ that had caught Sirius long enough for the Veil to catch him.

Harry gave the wizard a strained smile and came over to Hermione and Ron, he hugged them both before moving to Hagrid and letting the groundskeeper blubber over him.

“Time, Mr Potter. You have one minute.” Mr Ollivander called, what seemed like bare seconds later.

Harry dragged himself from Hagrid’s arms and gave Ron a last hug, then kissed Hermione’s cheek and darted back to Mr Ollivander’s side.

“You have ten seconds, Mr Potter.” He said and began to count backwards from ten.

Harry looked at his friends and let tears fall, but when Ollivander reached one, he took a deep breath and stepped backwards into the veil. His image cried, before sliding backwards into the Veil’s shadows.

A heartbeat of silence and… Hagrid’s loud sobs broke out.

“Mr Potter’s sentence has been executed. All outstanding class one warrants have been finalised. Mordred’s Law is complete. Come the start of business this morning, the Ministry will have the task of electing a new Minister.” Mr Ollivander said. “Let us all pray... that this does not come back to haunt us.”

Ron and Hermione stayed seated.

“Miss Granger? Mr Weasley? I’ll escort groundskeeper Hagrid to our healer and get him a calming draught.” Kingsley offered.

“Thank you, Auror Shacklebolt, for everything you’ve done for Harry.” Hermione said.

The chamber door opened, and a hated figure stood there, the toad in pink.

“Auror Robards, arrest Miss Granger.” She ordered.

“On what charge, Madam Umbridge?”

“Assault on a Ministry employee.” Umbridge gave a sickly-sweet smile.

Robards sighed but stood up. “Miss Granger? Please stand.”

Hermione stood and jerked into taking a step forward. “What was that?” She gasped. **_“No!”_** She held out a hand towards Robards and jolted again, before slowly fading from sight, in a rather disturbing manner.

Out of sight of Robards or Umbridge, she’d let go of the time turner’s hourglass and it had started spinning.

Robards darted over and cast a detection charm.

“What the hell was that?!” Ron squawked, he wasn't sure that was part of Hermione's plan, it didn't look the way he remembered.

“I don’t know. It… it was almost like a time turner, but not exactly.” Robards frowned.

“What do t you mean, not exactly?” Umbridge demanded.

“All the time turners were destroyed the night Voldemort attacked the Ministry, there aren’t any to use, plus… they don’t work like that. They’re instant, not slow, not like that.” Robards explained.

“It could be a portkey.” Croaker offered. “Dumbledore and Riddle were powerful enough to create a portkey that might override the Ministry anti-portkey wards. Might. What do the detection scans say?”

“The readings are…? See for yourself.” Robards offered.

Croaker recast the detection charms and his frown grew. “That’s… that’s not possible.”

“What?” Demanded Umbridge. “What did she do?”

“I don’t think Miss Granger had anything to do with that. The primary magical signature I’m reading is… Bellatrix Lestrange. And there’s a lot of malevolence to go with it.” Croaker answered, quite glad he'd given Granger the warning he had.

“But Lestrange is dead.” Umbridge argued.

“It looks like she may have planned a little revenge.” Croaker replied.

Hermione waited for the room to settle around her, before removing the time turner from her wrist. She turned around and nearly squealed in fright.

“That is a most unusual arrival, Miss Granger.” Croaker leant against a chair.

“Yes, it appears my time turner has reached the end of its life.” Hermione remembered Croaker explaining it that way.

“Ah, yes, that would account for it. How far did you turn?”

“Three turns. The ‘unturned' version of me will appear at your office in approximately half an hour, with Harry’s trunk.”

“In that case, shall we head there now?” Croaker asked.

“Please. Somewhere in there, McGonagall will also arrive.” Hermione followed the Unspeakable from the chamber and through the deserted halls of the DoM to the wizard’s office.

Sitting down, Hermione began to speak. “You need to stop me from entering the office and get Harry’s trunk from me. Also warn me that Umbridge is going to try and arrest me, pretty much the instant Harry’s gone. Suggest that I use the time turner. That because the time turner’s almost…” for the next few minutes, Hermione paraphrased everything that Croaker had told before she’d ‘turned’ back from Harry’s veiling.

McGonagall arrived and the three settled down to a well needed cup of tea. When the ‘unturned’ version of Hermione knocked on the door, Croaker made sure to keep them out of sight of each other. He passed back Harry’s trunk and Hermione quickly enlarged it and entered, McGonagall called to Croaker and the Unspeakable came over, gave them a smile and closed the trunk.

“Now, we need to get that glamour in place, we only have a few minutes.” Hermione said.

“We’re only glamouring it to look like midnight, correct?” McGonagall asked.

“Allow me.” Snape stepped from the Nest’s entrance. “You two are in dire need of rest. Head over to the pavilion, I shall join you shortly.”

“Thank you, Professor.” Hermione smiled at him and headed off to meet with the Nest’s residents. They’d decided that they would all stay in the pavilion until they knew Harry’s veiling had gone off without problems.

“How did it go?” Snape asked.

“She said there were no problems on Potter’s end, but that Umbridge tried to arrest her. She had to use a time turner that was on its last turn. That was apparently the only issue.” McGonagall replied.

“Good. Let us hope that it remains that way.” Snape turned to the entrance frame and began a series of complicated wand movements backed by a long and convoluted chant. But eventually the frame filled with a vision of darkness, just like a fog of darkness that didn’t alter anything behind it. “Shall we?” Snape offered McGonagall his arm and once she threaded hers through it, he led her through the gardens and into the pavilion.

Hermione had set up a pensieve to show them the highlights of her memories of the last few hours. After watching the parting, there were a number of people in tears, Hermione included.

“It must be close to time.” Bill said.

“Four passed two.” Hermione responded.

“It’s gone two, just.” Bill grimaced, looking at the big clock above the pavilion’s speaker’s platform.

As he spoke a wave of shimmering light flowed through the pavilion. As it touched each person, they gasped and fell into blackness. Hermione had time to grab Draco’s hand and draw a quick breath and… blackness…

The clock ticked over. Four minutes passed two.

Back in the wizarding world a letter arrived by owl from Hermione Granger to the acting Chief Warlock. This letter told the wizarding world how far it had fallen that over thirty people, who were not named, would rather follow Harry into the veil of death than stay in their society.

In Ottery St. Catchpole, Ronald Weasley laid down a letter and cried. He handed it to his father, while his tears fell.

Arthur read the letter and sighed. “I had a feeling this was going to happen.”

“You need to tell the Aurors, dad. We can’t hide this.” Ron said.

“Right.” Arthur took the other letters, those unopened and headed for the floo. “This is not going to end well, for the Ministry.”

And he was right. There was no hiding this, Hermione had made sure of it, sending a letter to the Daily Prophet, that was printed on the front page of the newspaper, that day.

Many people were upset but life went on. By the time Christmas arrived, the group that entered the veil were almost forgotten.

Molly mourned her sons, as though they were dead. Malfoy had his marriage dissolved and attempted to remarry, but his wealth was gone, vanished under mysterious circumstances along with his wife and son. Augusta Longbottom broke down and was placed in the same room that her son and daughter-in-law had lived in for over a decade. Ginny married a teammate of Viktor Krumm’s and went to live in Germany. Ron stayed single, his life devoted to quidditch and his creations, desk sets and travel cases. He had been stunned to find that Harry had left Ron as much gold as he had but it evened out. Harry might have left him gold, but he’d taken Ron’s gold, his family, in exchange.

Every day, he sent up a pray that Harry and those with him, were at peace, that they’d found a home worthy of what Britain had tried to take from them.


	15. Chapter 15

The dark-haired man clambered to his feet, his body wracked with pain. As his head cleared, he looked around in shock.

“Ugh, portkeys.” He muttered. “Bollocks. Bloody Bella.” He concentrated and attempted to apparate back to the Ministry.

Nothing happened.

He sighed and attempted to apparate to Grimmauld Place.

Nothing happened.

Alarm settled on his face and he paced in circles before his head lifted sharply and he squinted at the sun.

“Oh, have got to be kidding me…” He whined. “How bloody long was I out?” He shook his head and moved a long narrow stick from one hand to the other. “ _Expecto patronum_.” He huffed and a massive silvery shape appeared, similar in shape to a dog but of larger build and with a shaggier coat. “Whoa… that’s a bit bigger than I remember…” He shook his head again. “Message to Dumbledore. Bella slipped me a portk-” he stopped as the Patronus faded away. “That’s not supposed to happen. _Expecto patronum._ Message to Moony. Bella slipped me… Again?” Another silvery shape appeared and faded. “ _Expecto patronum._ Message to Harry.” This time he waited and for a third time the Patronus faded. “Bugger.” He tried to think. What was the distance limit of a Patronus? He had a vague memory of hearing Dumbledore recount receiving new of Grindelwald’s arrest in New York, Newt Scamander had sent a Patronus to warn him before it reached the newspapers. “Ok, so a Patronus message isn’t limited by distance, but by someone to receive it.” His heart cracked with the thought that Moony and Harry weren’t alive to receive his message, but someone had to be. “Who? McGonagall. Hagrid. But what if old snakeface has taken Hogwarts? Aberforth? Rosmerta? Andi?”

Over the next few minutes he tried them all and more. Every time, the Patronus faded before he could complete the message.

“Oh, shite…” He shuddered as he reached into a pocket and brought out a bristly broom. “Gods, I hope this thing works.” Would magic even work in this place? “Up.” He ordered and sighed in relief that the broom floated into the air.

He mounted the broom and commanded it into the sky. From fifty feet up, he saw nothing but mountains. From a hundred feet up, he saw nothing but mountains. He cast a bubblehead charm on himself and pointed the broom almost vertical and began to climb into the sky. At five hundred feet, all he saw was mountains. At a thousand feet, he knew he was in trouble. England and Scotland don’t have a mountain range that runs pretty much directly north-south, not like that. At ten thousand feet he whimpered, he could see no cities or large areas under farming. At twenty thousand feet, the broom shook, but the man could barely see the coastlines. He was not in England or Scotland.

He sighed and let the broom settle back to earth. There was only one last thing to do…

“ _Tempus et locus_.”

Letters began to appear in the air in his own handwriting.

**_2.47pm_ **

**_18June 2939._ **

**_Unnamed ridge._ **

**_Misty Mountains._ **

**_Middle-Earth._ **

**_Arda._ **

**_49°7’53” N, 4°58’2” E._ **

“No…” The man moaned, then there was a massive dog where the man had stood.

A long heartbreaking howl filled the air, followed by a second, then a third and a fourth. Silence slowly fell in the mountains. The local wildlife hunched in on themselves at the pain in the beast’s howls and stayed in their hiding places.

The beast, a massive bear-sized Grimm, stalked across the mountain ridge, the man inside retreating into the animal’s brain, it had protected him once, it would protect him again.

The Grimm stayed in the mountains, never venturing down to the lowlands, it haunted the upper valleys and ridges. The larger denizens of the mountains grew to accept the Grimm, learning quickly that it had no intention to hunt them, the small animals were its preferred prey and were hunted down with surprising ease.

Occasionally the Grimm saw signs of humans, the first time startled it so badly that it nearly fell into the hunter’s trap. After righting itself and finding a secluded patch of forest, the Grimm became a man, who whispered “Expecto patronum” into the air and watched as a silvery Grimm grew then faded again. The man became the Grimm and faded into the night.

Days passed into weeks and weeks passed into months, and still the Grimm stayed in the mountains. Each time the moon rose full, the grim became a man, and just as the sun set, he whispered the same words. When the silvery Grimm faded each time without taking his message, the man retreated into the Grimm and the beast would howl its pain to the moon.

Two winters passed and the Grimm stopped becoming a man, stopped casting its spell. Instead it tracked the movements of people through its territory. Up into the areas where the underground-dwellers roamed and back down into the lowlands. It took upon itself, the responsibility for seeing those that entered its territory, all left safely.

The howl of a lesser canine echoed in the later summer evening, causing the Grimm to snarl, it disliked the filthy newcomers, they tainted the water and hunted the animals he tried to protect. He tracked them down to a spit of rock that jutted out over the mountain’s edge, a few tired old pines clinging to the poor soil.

As he watched the beasts hunted a group of small beings, those that reminded the Grimm of a certain charms Professor, but far more robust. Given the weapons they carried and the fight they were putting up, they were well accustomed to battle. As the beings were driven up into the trees, a single being, even smaller than the others was left standing, trying to remove a dagger from a beast’s head.

The Grimm heaved a sigh and became a man, he began to make his way down the incline, charms and spells falling from his lips, to conceal his presence from them all, at least until he was ready to show himself.

When the beasts began to attack the trees, the man sighed again, they weren’t going to walk away from this without a fight. “Bollocks.” His cracked voice went unheard. When the trees began to uproot themselves, he knew they were running out of time. With only one tree standing, there was nowhere for the little ones to go, but down. The man wasn’t sure he was strong enough or fast enough to save them all and even if he did, there was still those that followed the part-man-part-troll monstrosity, to deal with.

When the only human, in either party, used a staff to set pinecones on fire, the man blinked. Who carried a staff? Too cumbersome and visible. But it worked, sort of, driving the beasts back, creating a ring of fire that the beasts were afraid to cross.

Just when it seemed like they might drive the beasts away, there was a deep cracking and the last tree, began to tilt, its roots losing their hold on the rocky ground. It came to a stop almost level with the ground, hanging out over nothing but clear air for at least a hundred feet.

As the man positioned himself to retrieve the tree’s occupants, one of them stood up and walked down the trunk like it was a broad staircase. Regal and powerful, a long and elegant sword in his hand. Slowly he broke into a run, he was going to challenge the white man-troll. The man-troll’s canine version of a nundu tossed the smaller being aside like it was a chew-toy, not once but twice. The smallest of the beings entered the fight, when the canine-nundu picked up its thrown aside toy, like a bone. A flash of metal and a body rolled across the ground. The man-troll told an underling something in its foul voice and the underling approached, a sword raised to end a life. The littlest one knocked the underling from its feet and a bright blade was buried in the underling’s chest.

The little one stood between the man-troll and his fallen comrade, with his blade held high. After that it was a little wild, blades flashed and more beings from the tree entered the fight.

But the fight was lost before it began, and the man stood beside the little one, his concealment spell dismissed and his wand at the ready, having cast cutting curses and blasting hexes at any of the man-troll’s forces that got near them. The two shared a glance, resigned to their end, when suddenly… eagles the size of a bloody dragon appeared and began to tear into the man-troll’s beasts.

Their wings fanned the flames and drove them towards the man-troll, they picked off his beasts and dropped them over the cliff, felled trees onto them and one by one, they swept up the little beings carrying them in their claws only to swap them over to the back of a flock-mate. One swooped in and scooped up the leader, the one that lay unconscious after being tossed around by the man-troll’s white beast. Talons gently scooped up the warrior and as he left the ground a piece of branch with metal tipped ends, fell to the ground. An eagle swooped in and its talons closed around the littlest being, right beside the man, he simply turned his head to avoid the dust from its wings, before he shrugged, scooped up the fallen branch and shoved it into his expandable pocket. Then he took a run-up and leapt from the cliff, not sure whether to hope an eagle would catch him or not.

But one did.

They flew through the last of the night and into the dawn. Soaring above the clouds made him miss his bike, which in turn forced him to think about people. Remus, Moony, his best mate, the one he would happily have shared his life with. Harry, his cub, his beloved godson, the closest he would ever have come to child of his own. James, Prongs, the brother of his heart. Lily, Flame, the brightest and scariest witch of her age. And behind them was Dumbledore, his headmaster and one of the few people he both admired and hated.

A pinnace of rock seemed to be their destination. It jutted up out of the ground like a spire of a cathedral, the tip tilted and flattened. The eagle carrying the fallen warrior was the first to touch down, lowering its burden to the ground, a sword clattering against the rock. Then the grey wizard, he leapt from his mount and hurried to the warrior’s side, as he leant over the fallen warrior, the other eagles deposited their passengers, one-by-one, the man the last to join them.

There was a tense moment between he warrior and the littlest one that turned into an emotional feelgood moment.

Then the wizard spotted the man.

“And who do we have here?” The old man asked, drawing the attention of all the others.

“Who’s that?” One young person asked.

“He fought against the wargs.” The littlest one said. “I think he’s a wizard like Gandalf, he threw lights at them that cut them or blasted them into the trees.”

The old man, that had been identified as a wizard, moved closer. “A wizard? No, Bilbo, it’s not possible, I’m sorry to say.”

Something pulled in the younger man’s chest and a smirk grew on his face.

He pulled his wand from his sleeve, again and with a flick, conjured up a plush cushion. He sat down on it and with another flick a pile of small logs appeared in front of him. The voices that had been asking questions about him had gone quiet, in shock.

“ _Incendio_.” Flames burst from the tip of his wand and engulfed the logs, when they were burning merrily, he picked up a pebble and transfigured it into a kettle that he filled with a quiet, “ _augamenti_.”

Then he began to dig around in his pocket, his hand emerging with a small drawstring bag.

“Anyone for tea?” He asked.

“Finally!” The littlest one, the one that the wizard called ‘Bilbo’ yelled, making the others jump. “A civilized being.” This comment earned him some objections from the others. “Oh, shut up. How many of you have got tea in your pockets? Hmm...?” Mutters answered him but he ignored them and turned to the man.

“Would you like a cushion?” The man asked with a cheeky grin.

“Please. I don’t suppose, that thing makes biscuits, does it?” A small hand pointed at his wand.

“No, unfortunately not. I might have some of Molly’s cake, though…” He proceeded to dig into the bag, his hand going into it, then his forearm, then his entire arm. “Blast it, where is it?” He muttered. “Oh, bugger it. Accio Molly’s cake.” The bag’s neck ballooned and swelled, and a plate enclosed by a crystal cloche flew out, to be grabbed by the man. “Woman’s a harridan, but my gods, she’s a brilliant cook.”

The little one sat down on the cushion opposite the man. “Chocolate cake for breakfast? My mother would be rolling in her grave.” He shook his head.

The man snorted. “Yeah, mine too, but not just because of the time of day. She hated anything I liked.” The second sentence was muttered quietly.

“Well, what sort of hobbit am I, to refuse a meal?” The little one held out a hand. “Bilbo Baggins, the Baggins of Bag End, at your service.” The two shook hands in a very genteel manner, the man showing years of etiquette lessons.

“Well met, Master Baggins. Sirius Orion Black, Marauder and Gryffindor graduate.” He stood and gave an elaborate bow, one that spoke of long experience. “And apparently Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of Black.” That last sentence was said with reluctance and dislike.

“Well met, indeed, Lord Black.” The wizard started only to find that neither seated being acknowledged his presence, as the man who’d called himself Sirius Black, summoned a tea set on a silver tray, from his little bag.

Sirius knew it was irking the older wizard but as the man had yet to attempt to introduce himself, Sirius was sticking with Bilbo and the more refined manners that James’ mother had literally beaten into his head with year upon year of summer lessons.

“Tea, Master Baggins?” Sirius asked, pouring hot water into the teapot, swirling it around and emptying it over the side of their precarious location.

“I’d be delighted, Lord Black.” Bilbo responded while the rest of the Company watched on.

Sirius placed a delicate china trio of teacup, saucer and plate, in front of the self-identified hobbit, before refilling the teapot and adding a spoonful of Remus’ preferred Darjeeling tea... how **_that_** got into his bag, he wasn’t admitting.

“I’m afraid I cannot offer cream. Milk, lemon and sugar, yes, but not cream. I wasn’t expecting to be in such… remote conditions.” Sirius let the tray float between them.

“Ah, no apologies necessary, one is relieved to find people in such remote conditions, who understand the fine art of taking tea.” Bilbo waved him off. “I, personally, prefer sugar and a dash of milk with my tea, father despaired over my appalling taste.”

“I confess that taking tea has rarely been something I had time for, my studies and trying to keep my foster brother out of trouble, limited my time. However, summer was often spent with my foster family and high tea was a special treat.” Sirius smiled fondly, as he recalled trips with Euphemia, he and James accompanying her to the Ritz Hotel’s Palm Court, as a reward for leaving Hogwarts still standing at the end of each of their senior school years.

“Oh, high tea is a most wonderous thing, but completely different from taking tea with friends.” Bilbo allowed.

“Oh, yes. Cake?”

“You say the woman’s a good cook?” Bilbo asked, he’d had experience with bad cakes and had no wish to be ill.

“Far beyond good, I’ve never known her to produce **_anything,_** that wasn’t superb.” Sirius admitted, with reluctant admiration.

“In that case, yes please.” Bilbo calmly held out the plate and Sirius, just as calmly, cut a small slice of the luscious looking cake and laid it on the plate.

“Master Baggins?” The warrior that had regained his feet spoke. “Would you be so kind as to provide introductions?”

“Oh… Certainly, Thorin.” Bilbo blinked as he recalled exactly where they were and placed his plate on the ground at his knee. “Thorin Oakenshield, King in Exile of Durin’s folk, may I introduce Lord Sirius Black of the Ancient and Noble House of Black.” Bilbo had no idea what an Ancient and Noble House was, but by the way Sirius had stated that he was its lord, he guessed it to mean that it was a house of high standing.

“Greetings, Lord Black.” Thorin, the warrior he’d watched challenge the man-troll, gave him a slightly pained bow.

“Your majesty, please. You are injured, allow me to provide assistance.” Sirius held out a hand in the classic ‘stop’ signal. He then reached into his bag and pulled out a small free-standing cupboard, a quick tap with his wand and it grew to stand six foot tall. He opened it and tilted his head, searching for something. “Ah, there it is.” He plucked up a small glass phial. “And… that one… and probably that one, too.” Three phials were withdrawn, and one was laid on his hand and offered to Thorin. “A pain reliever, your wounds must be most painful.”

Thorin looked at him, but sensing no animosity, he nodded slowly and accepted the phial, popping the stopper and swallowing the shimmering blue liquid. Seconds later, he blinked in surprise.

“So quickly?” He asked.

“The benefit of a magical potion, sire, is that it is absorbed into your bloodstream almost instantly.” He held out second phial. “To close the wounds and repair any internal damage.” This time Thorin wasn’t as slow about accepting the phial or drinking its contents. “And this one will inhibit infection from the beast’s saliva. It does no good to repair a wound only to seal the poison inside the patient’s body.”

Thorin nodded and drank the contents of the third phial, before offering the empty containers back to Sirius.

“My thanks, Lord Black. Allow me to introduce my Company.” He gestured and the Company formed ranks. “My Heirs and sister-sons, Fíli and Kíli, princes of Erebor.”

Two of the younger men stepped forward.

“Fíli…” Said one.

“And Kíli…” Said the other.

“At your service.” They said together.

Sirius grinned, they reminded him a pair of redheads, two pairs of redheads, in fact.

One by one, the dwarves were introduced. Captain of the Guard, Dwalin. Chief Advisor, Balin. Chief Healer, Oín. Master of the Coin, Gloín. Major-domo, Dori. Chief of Intelligence, Nori. Scribe, Ori. Master of Knives, Bombur. Master of Procurements, Bofur. And Bifur, Thorin’s personal valet, turned Honour-Guard.

It was only then, that the other wizard stepped forward and introduced himself with any semblance of polite manners.

“Lord Black? I am Gandalf the Grey, a wizard of the Maiar. How is it that you came to be here? And that you can wield magic?”

Gandalf telling Sirius his name, told Sirius where he was, Lily and Remus had made he and James read that particular set of books, whenever they were in detention in their seventh year.

Sirius sighed, he was never going to see his loved ones again. “I was… there was a battle. A Dark wizard was trying to take over our society, he was killing any that opposed him. I was duelling one of his lieutenants, she hit me with a spell that pushed me into a magical artefact. Everything went black, when I regained consciousness, I was here in the Misty Mountains, a little further north of where we met. The artefact transported me from my world to yours and nothing I’ve tried has enabled me to reverse that.”

“Your world?” Thorin asked.

“Dark wizard?” Gandalf asked.

“Nothing can get you home?” Bilbo asked.

“How many wizards are there on your world?” Kíli asked.

“Um…?” Sirius wasn’t sure which to answer and decided that Kíli’s question was the easiest, at least there he could speak with a degree of authority. “I completed my medi-wizard training in… um,” he wasn’t sure, but he thought the time differences were going to cause confusion if he used dates, “when I was twenty, then entered hit-wizard training. We had to be proficient in dealing with the non-magical world and part of that was learning about it, its laws, its transport and its population. The summer before I turned twenty-two, the world population ticked over to four-and-a-half billion people. Roughly fifty million in our country alone. But the wizarding population was smaller, just fractionally more than one in ten million, that same summer the world’s wizarding population reached five hundred thousand.”

Gandalf stumbled back in shock.

“So many?” Bilbo gasped. “And you can all use magic?”

“Oh, yeah, we go to school for at least seven years, to learn how to control it.” Sirius grinned, remembering the pranks he and the other Marauders had gotten up to.

“Lord Black?” Oín stepped forward. “As healer to this Company, may I ask for your assistance in tending their injuries?”

“Of course, Master Oín. But might I suggest that we get down off of here first?” Sirius looked around. “There’s nowhere for the them sit comfortably.”

“I’m not sure about getting down.” Bofur came forward. “The steps are pretty tall and Bifur, Dwalin and Kíli took the brunt of the goblin king, when he fell on us.”

Gandalf and Sirius both leant out over the steps and assessed the height of them.

“About ten foot, I’d say.” Gandalf muttered.

“About that.” Sirius agreed.

“And a long way down, if they fall.” Gandalf huffed.

“About eight hundred feet, give-or-take a few.” Sirius added.

“Any better ideas than lowering them down each step?” Gandalf asked, not actually expecting an answer.

“Yep.” Sirius pulled out his trusty little bag and with a few flicks of his wand, had emptied and cleaned the tea set and packed it and the medicine cabinet away, vanished the fire, kettle and cushions, sealed up the cake and put it back in his bag and pulled out a ratty looking broom. “Time to fly. Up.” He commanded and the broom snapped into the air to hover at his side.

The Company blinked at the sight of a broom, floating in the air with no apparent means of suspension.

“Who’s first? Someone will have to go first.” Sirius grinned.

“You really think that little twig’s gonna hold us?” Dwalin demanded.

“With a featherweight charm, yeah, sure.” Sirius shrugged. “It’s a Cleansweep, they’re renowned for their durability.”

“I’ll go.” Kíli eyed the broom with fascination, even as he held his ribs.

“Alright, little lion, come on over here.” Sirius gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “ _Pondus paribus_.” He tapped Kíli on the shoulder and watched the young dwarf’s eyes widen. “While the translation is **_technically_** … ‘weight of a feather’, you don’t actually weigh the same as a feather, what it does is decrease your weight to approximately ten percent of your uncharmed weight.” He reached out a hand and the broom floated over to him. “This has cushioning charms on it, so you won’t crush the jewels, don’t worry. Now… this is how to mount a broom, as a passenger.” He showed them how climb up onto a floating broom. “And away we go…” He leant forward, fractionally, and Kíli clutched at him as the broom edged out over the steps and into free air.

A few hours later they were on the ground and running. From what? Sirius wasn’t quite sure, but something had spooked them. He knew it wasn’t just the orcs. Although he wasn’t quite sure what an orc **_was_** , he knew it wasn’t them that were the cause of the running. He knew there was the roar of some great beast, but…? Other than that? Nope, not a clue.

Through a forest and across a stream, they ran. More trees and they could see a house surrounded by tall trees and a hedge of bushes.

As they ran across the open field between the trees and the house, there came a screech of a great bird and something knocked him from his feet. He rolled in an awkward forward somersault, coming to his feet and beginning to run again, all in one motion. As he did, he looked to see what had hit him, but he could see nothing as he sprinted to catch the dwarves.

In the house Gandalf explained that the huge bear that chased them was actually their host, and that his name was Beorn, and one of the dwarves… Sirius knew he was either Nori, Dori or Ori, but not which one… said something about the bear being under a dark spell.

“No, not if he can change at will. Dark magic takes away the victim’s free will.” Sirius disagreed.

“He’s under no enchantment but his own.” Gandalf added.

“So, he’s an Animagus, then.” Sirius nodded.

“A what?” Bilbo asked.

“An Animagus can transform into an animal. What animal, depends on the person.” Sirius explained.

Then the wizard ordered them to get some sleep, that they’d be safe for the night. Sirius shrugged and shifted into his Grimm form and snorted as the dwarves jumped in fright. He found a corner and curled himself around, his tail covering his snout. A soft touch had him opening his eyes to see Bilbo and the two young princes, layering hay beside him. He huffed and closed his eyes, he needed sleep.

Morning came and there was a buzz in the air and the still three-quarters asleep Sirius, in his Grimm form, barely opened his eyes before he yelped and was standing, legs braced, and hackles raised. The large bird’s head tilted, and it cawed at him. He shifted back to his human shape and gaped at the bird.

“Buckbeak?” He gasped.


	16. Chapter 16

_Morning came and there was a buzz in the air and the still three-quarters asleep Sirius, in his Grimm form, barely opened his eyes before he yelped and was standing, legs braced, and hackles raised. The large bird’s head tilted, and it cawed at him. He shifted back to his human shape and gaped at the bird._

_“Buckbeak?” He gasped._

Harry saw the ground coming at him and tucked his body, ready to roll. The forward momentum pushed his roll and he tumbled head over heels, only coming to a stop at the base of a huge tree. He stood and shook his head, his body aching from his unexpected acrobatics. He had taken one step from the tree when he heard the roar of a great beast, louder and wilder than even the dragons used in the tri-wizard tournament.

He turned to his left and saw a bear nearly the size of an elephant coming straight for him. His eyes widened and he flinched back, turning to the tree and jumping at it, at the same time as he shifted into his Animagus form of a black Jaguar, more commonly known as a panther. His claws sank into the bark and his powerful hind legs propelled him up the into the trees branches before the bear could reach him.

The bear stumbled to a halt at the base of the tree and looked at the large black cat and whuffled at it, questioningly. The cat yowled back at the bear warningly.

The bear reared up and leant against the tree with one great paw, before slowly and painfully morphing back into a huge man.

“Come down, little skin changer, I will not harm you. I had thought I was alone.” The man urged.

Harry shifted back into his human shape, held onto the tree and leant out enough to see the man.

“I’m not the same as you, I don’t think. I came here from another world, through a magical gateway.” Harry told the man.

“It matters not, little one, you can change your skin, you are my kin.”

“Ah… that’s not quite right. Where I came from, almost anyone can learn how to become an Animagus.”

“Learn? You are not born with two forms?”

“No.” Harry answered. “Most people have a form that is a totem animal, it represents what they are inside, but few are focused enough to change into it and fewer still are powerful enough to have a second form and that one is a magical creature.”

“Magical?” The man asked. “You dabble in magic, little cat?”

Harry bristled at the insinuation. “I don’t **_dabble_** , I was trained by some of the greatest witches and wizards my world has.”

“I did mean to insult. Magic is wild and dangerous.” The man began.

“And that’s why we go to a special school to learn how to use it.” Harry snapped.

“A school?”

“Yes, we go to school, I went Hogwarts for seven years. We have exams at the end of every year and at the end of our fifth and sevenths years, we sit international exams.” This was very odd conversation to be having while perched in a tree, but Harry wasn’t coming down until he knew he was safe.

“Exams? What are exams?” The man asked in a confused tone.

“Exams are… tests, I suppose. Each of us are tested to make sure that we know what the spells are, how to use them, how to avoid them, how to counter them and how to cancel them.” How did someone not know what an exam was?

“Hnh… Like I test my seedlings to know which ones are strong enough to plant, or my cheeses to know which are ripe?”

“Yeah, sort of. There’s a lot more writing involved and some spellcasting, but, yeah… sure, much the same.” Harry shrugged and almost lost his balance.

“Don’t fall, little cat, come down instead. I will not harm you, you are safe on my lands. Come down and I shall share my food with you.”

Harry pursed his lips and studied the man, but had few options, unless he wanted to stay in the tree. A quick shift and his Animagus form, who he’d tentatively named Longfang due to one of his fangs being considerably longer than the others, leapt from the tree and landed on a nearby boulder, before leaping from that to the ground and shifting back into his human form.

“So easily, you shift, little one.” The big man whispered, and Harry got a look at how big the man really was.

He was huge, he had to be at least eight-foot-tall, maybe even taller, but thankfully Harry was quite accustomed to dealing with Hagrid, so the only concern was the newness of their acquaintance.

“It is now, but when I started…? My first shift had my Professor falling off her chair laughing.” Harry huffed.

“Laughing? Why laughing?”

“I mucked up the shift, because I wasn’t focusing properly and I gave myself a tail, ears and whiskers but nothing else. No cat shape, no fur, nothing. Just a naked tail and ears.” Harry sighed, wondering how long it would take McGonagall to tell Hermione of his disastrous lessons?

“Ah, I see. Well, you looked like a big black forest cat, this time.” The man said.

“Yeah, having to shift a dozen times in an hour, you get the hang of it, pretty quick.” Harry shrugged.

“I am Beorn and these are my lands.” The big man said. “I do not allow hunting for meat, on them, nor do I eat meat.”

“I’m Harry.” Harry gave Beorn a smile. “The only things I’ve ever killed were a giant snake that attacked my school and the man that murdered my parents and tried to kill me… um… five(?) times. Six? Five? Godric’s Hollow, the stone, the tournament, the Ministry and the big battle. Five. It seemed like more at the time.” He resorted to counting them off on his fingers.

“Someone tried to kill you five times?” Beorn growled, little of his other form showing through.

“Yeah, but it didn’t work out for him, my mother cast a protection spell that was powered by her death. The idiot kept trying, but he never succeeded. Even when I stood there and let him hit me with his deadliest spell, it didn't take. After that it was… easier, I didn’t actually kill him, I just… made his own spell rebound on him. He died by his own spell.” Harry walked at Beorn’s side, completely unconcerned about the size of the man beside him.

“You have hidden strengths, Harry.” Beorn thrust his chin out and nodded approvingly.

Harry laughed. “One of my Professors called it ‘sheer dumb luck’ and I think she’s pretty much spot on. She-” Harry cut off his next sentence. “Oh, wow, look at them… They’re… wow…” Harry was in awe of the black and white ponies.

“They are mine, my friends. I care for them and protect them.” Beorn said. “Wargs from the mountains try to hunt them and I am forced to fight to protect them. “

“They’re the reason you allow no hunting, aren’t they?” Harry asked.

“They are.”

“What of the natural hunters, those that hunt smaller animals?”

“Like your cat?” Beorn waved a hand towards some trees behind a hedge, across a field. “My home.”

“Nice. And no, not me. Real animals.” He was thinking of Buckbeak and his herd.

“What sort of… animals?” Beorn asked, frowning.

“My friend asked me to protect some of his animals, he wasn’t able to care for them like they needed. There wasn’t the space or the resources.” Harry felt bad for Hagrid. “They were like his children and he had to choose between them. The fact that Buckbeak trusted me enough to let me ride him, allowed Hagrid to think of what was better for them.”

“Tell me about them.” Beorn ordered as they approached the hedge.

“They’re hippogriffs.” Harry started.

“Hippagreefs? I have not heard of these before.” Beorn mangled the unfamiliar word.

“No. Hippo-griff. They’re a magical animal, that’s part horse and part bird. I understand that the first hippogriff was transfigured from a hawk’s egg and the wizard tended them until they hatched.”

“Part horse? Part bird?” Beorn stopped in his tracks and looked down at Harry. “This, I would like to know more about.” As he said that, Harry’s stomach rumbled.

“Breakfast didn’t last long, did it?” Harry muttered to himself.

“Come, we shall feed you and you shall tell me of these… hippo-griffs.” The big man opened the doors to his house.

To the right was a barn area for long-horned shaggy cattle and to the left was slightly raised area that held a massive table and some shelves. One the table were a loaf of dark bread, a bowl of fresh vegetables, part of a round of cheese, a jug of something and a series of pots.

“I do not cook much, but you are welcome to anything I have.” Beorn said, slicing thick slabs of bread and cheese.

“I’m happy just to have something to eat. Food was not a regular thing for me, growing up.” Harry accepted the bread and cheese and used one of the table knives to split the bread into two thinner slices, that were still joined on the base and shaved the cheese finer before assembling himself a sandwich of cheese and tomato.

“Interesting…” Beorn watched and did the same.

“Saves me dropping bits.” Harry shrugged.

“Milk?” Beorn held up a cask-sized jug.

“Oh, please.” Harry flicked his wrist and let his wand fall into his hand and a second flick conjured a small tankard. Beorn raised his great bushy brows and blinked a few times but said nothing as he poured frothy milk into the tankard. “Thanks.”

The rest of the day as spent chatting and getting to know each other and as Harry bustled around Beorn’s kitchen and dished up a vegetable and egg pie, the big man invited Harry to stay for a while. Harry could only smile at his new friend, his emotions clogging his throat. After dinner he was shown to a small-ish room, small in comparison to the rest of the building, but still bigger than the Gryffindor dorm-room that he’d shared with four other boys.

That night Harry fell into the huge bed and was asleep, almost before his head met the cloud-like pillow.

For the next few days, Harry followed Beorn around like a curious puppy, looking at this and poking at that, brushing the round ponies and cooing at the bees the size of a snitch. These looked like big fat bumblebees but were Beorn’s main source of honey and like all bears, the big man liked his honey. Harry had taken over the kitchen that first night and he enjoyed producing sweet things for his host to nibble on. Beorn showed him how to harvest the honey and Harry went one step further and used a calming charm to quiet the bees, even further, when it was time to collect their honey. The ponies quickly learned that the smaller man kept cubes of carrot and parsnip in his pockets and would crowd around him, like the D.A. when Harry showed them a new spell.

All-in-all? Harry revelled in the peace around him.

But he still got up early each morning and went through the exercises that he’d learnt from the training memory that Gringotts had provided for him, going from unarmed to the ulak knives to the sword to his staff. Beorn had said that he’d had to fight to protect his home and his animals, and Harry knew that sooner or later his luck would put him in yet another fight. After putting his blades away, the ulaks in his room along with his staff and the sword as a pendant around his neck, he would pull out his wands and in the safety of his room, he’d run through the spells that Kingsley and Croaker had taught him.

When he’d been there for nearly a week, Beorn appeared one morning dragging a log.

“It is time to build a little house for you, my friend.” Was all he said.

Harry nodded and pulled a wand, rarely seen by Beorn, from his holster on his arm, he had not reached the point of leaving it, or his shrunken sword, in his room. He found that magic responded so much easier here, like it was just **_waiting_** for someone to call on it, he barely had to whisper the familiar chants for it to respond and he began to wonder if he could teach himself to go wandless, here. But for the moment, he wore two holsters, with his custom phoenix feather wands made by Ollivander, safe and within easy reach, on his arms. Together the pair built a small three-room cottage, it had a larger sitting room in the front with a cosy bedroom behind it and a tiny bathroom under the eaves beside the bedroom. With Harry using magic to cast featherweight charms and levitate logs where Beorn directed, it took surprisingly few days to complete.

That first night, as he was leaving Beorn’s big house after dinner, the skin changer told Harry that he would have a place in the Beornings for as long as he wished. As long as he would defend Beorn’s lands, he would be welcome to stay.

The next morning, Harry laid his trunk on a massive bed in the house that Beorn had made for him. He stood there and looked at it, his heart breaking that he’d never see Hermione again. She was his best friend and she’d stood beside him through thick and thin. And he’d never see her again. He didn’t think he was ready to open the larger compartment, not yet. The smaller one held more than enough for him to get by on, at least for a while.

He scooped out the clothes and placed them on the shelves that jutted out of the walls. They were joined by the chess set, bar the hippogriff pieces, and the first aid kit. Who knew when he’d need that? The broom and the blankets were laid on the bed, but the traveller’s pantry went back in the trunk. With its stasis charms, it would be fine until he decided to leave Beorn’s lands. He gathered up the box of hippogriff chess pieces and held it under his arm, while the broom was slung over his shoulder.

Time to wake Buckbeak.

Out in the field, hedged by trees, Harry turned to Beorn. “There’s a few things you need to know about hippogriffs, before I start.” Beorn nodded but said nothing. “They are extremely proud creatures and can be very dangerous. When approaching them, proper etiquette **_must_** be maintained, or they’re likely to attack. Stop about twenty feet from them, bow and stay bowed until the hippogriff bows back, then and only then can you approach them. Do it slowly, if the hippogriff tenses, raises its wings or throws its head back, stop. Wait for it to settle and begin to approach again. Stop about ten feet away and slowly raise a hand, no sudden movements. Let the hippogriff come to you. They like their crests feathers fluffed and preened, it’s one of the few places they can’t reach for themselves.”

“As you say.” Beorn nodded again.

“What I’m going to do, is take this in stages. First, I’ll cancel the transfiguration. Then, once I have them positioned, I’ll wake Buckbeak, he’s the herd stallion, then once he’s got himself together, I’ll wake the rest of the herd. I suggest giving me a bit of distance, he’s likely to be a bit upset.”

“I shall wait over there.” Beorn pointed to the tree, some twenty yards away, where Harry had left his broom.

“That’s fine.” Harry laid out the pieces and carefully dismissed the transfiguration charm, then he levitated the curious looking animals into the places and positions he’d selected for them. “Here goes nothing…” He whispered and pointed his wand at the pale grey stallion. “ _Rennervate_.” It took a few seconds, but Buckbeak clambered to his hooves and shook himself off, seeing his mares lying around he sniffed at them before cawing harshly. “Beaky?” Harry called to get the creature’s attention. The stallion swung towards him and screamed his anger. “Easy, mate, easy. They’re just asleep. Shh, now, shh.”

Harry kept up a steady stream of crooning nonsense and Beaky slowly began to respond to him. Harry bowed and after a few moments, Beaky bowed back and Harry walked closer, stopping far enough away that Beaky wasn’t threatened by him. A few more moments and Beaky rested his razor-sharp beak, that was nearly the size of Harry’s head, in Harry’s hand. Harry stepped closer and scruffled his fingers through the soft feathers. The two stood like this for a minute or so, before Beaky looked over his shoulder towards his mares and warbled a sad little sound.

“Want me to wake them, Beaky? I can.” Harry stepped back and drew his wand, Beaky watching him intently. “ _Rennervate_.”

This time instead of pointing his wand directly at one hippogriff, Harry waved it around the little grove of oak trees and one by one, the mares and foals woke up. Beaky quickly moved over to them, sniffing that this one, nudging that, preening a few feathers of a foal. Basically, reassuring himself that his ladies and their hatchlings were all there and all uninjured. When all were settled and preening each other or their foals, Beaky moved back towards Harry. No bows this time, just a calm and quiet progression. Beaky nudged at Harry and the young man awkwardly climbed onto the stallion’s back. A flip of his wings and Beaky took to the air, circling his new home and learning the feel of the air currents around it. Once they were high enough, Harry summoned his broom from where he’d left it. When it reached them, Harry carefully rose until he stood on the stallion’s back and lifted a hand, his broom came closer and Harry leapt from hippogriff to broom and began to fly alongside his feathered friend.

They twisted and turned, dipped and rose, teasing and taunting the other, their joy in flight clear to the big shape-shifter as he watched from the ground.

“He is smiling... Finally…” Beorn whispered. “This is a good thing.”

A week later, Harry’s luck ran out.

A group of what Beorn called orcs, entered the lands they protected. The intruders killed with abandon, anything that got in their way. When one of Beorn’s ponies was torn to pieces, the skin-changer went berserk, he attacked without thought to his own safety and if Harry had not been as quick with his sword as he was with a wand, the big man would have been overwhelmed. As it was, he was severely injured, a crude black blade sinking into his unprotected side and tearing it open.

Harry screamed and magic burst from him, a wave of pure white light spread out from the snarling wizard. As it touched each of the intruders it enclosed them in a bubble of magic and changed them. The wargs, the ugly canines the orcs rode like horses, began to change, to shrink, smaller and smaller they got, until they were just wolves, then smaller again until they were puppies. The orcs weren’t as fortunate, Harry’s magic attacked them, it ripped the black blood from their bodies and turned them to dust, before that dust faded into nothing, much like Voldemort had done.

The wizard blinked in shock at what had happened, but adrenalin was still pumping through his veins and forcing him to act and act quickly. He stunned the former-warg-now-puppies and conjured a basket to put them in, then descended on Beorn’s trembling form.

“I’m… sorry… my friend…” The man whispered. “Protect… my lands… I leave… my… animals… in your… hands…”

“No, they’re yours, Beorn.”

“No… one… survives… an orc… blade… poison… too… great…” Beorn held his side and tears leaked from his eyes. “At least… I die… free…”

Harry flashed back to Dobby’s death and he snarled. “You’re not dead yet, Beorn Changeling and you will not die if I can help it.” Harry stood and whispered a sleeping charm. Then his wand flicked, and a few fallen branches were transfigured into a stretcher, another flick and Beorn was levitated onto the stretcher, a third and the basket of stunned puppies were between his feet. Harry took a deep breath and reached out, summoning his broom from his cottage. While that was coming, he cast a featherlight charm on the stretcher and its cargo. When his broom arrived, he mounted up and levitated the stretcher, tethering it to his broom.

He carefully flew back to his cottage, landing on the little paved area in front of his bedroom, where he did his exercises each morning, and let the stretcher settle back the ground, he darted inside and dragged the first aid kit from the shelf. But a quick glance at its contents showed that it was predominantly muggle-based products and he needed something better, if he was to save his friend.

“Goddamn it.” He snarled, before gasping. “Oh!” He remembered Hermione saying that Fawkes had given her his tears and that she had placed some in Harry’s trunk. He dropped to his knees and dragged the trunk from under his bed, tapping it with a wand to shrink it as soon as he had room. He ran back outside and stood the, now tiny, trunk on its end and enlarged it, switched the lock from trunk to door and enlarged it further again. He flung it open and plunged into it.

He came to a screeching halt just a few feet later.

“Fuck!” He snarled. “Where bloody hell would Mione have put the first kit?” He rubbed a hand over his face.

“First door to your left.” A silky voice answered.

Harry turned and headed that way, throwing a quick “thanks, Snape,” over his shoulder.

“What seems to be the problem, Potter?” Snape asked.

“I need phoenix tears, or my friend is going to die, he was stabbed in the side by a poisoned blade.” Harry replied without thought.

“Ah. Here. This is a wound sealant that has a phoenix tear in it, to increase the potency. And this is an infection suppressant. And I assume you are quite familiar with blood replenishing potions?” Each was scooped off a shelf and handed to Harry. “I suggest giving them in that order.”

“Yessir.” Harry yelled as he sprinted back to his friend, his mind not registering anything but the potions to help his friend.

Back outside, Harry _rennervated_ Beorn and ignoring his objections, gently forced the big man to swallow each potion. When all three were gone, the skin-changer lay back, his breathing still laboured, but not to the same degree. His breathing began to ease and he fell into a natural and healing sleep.

“Out of the way, Mr Potter.” A woman’s voice sounded at his shoulder and Harry automatically stepped aside. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black waved her wand over the prone man. “He’s quite a robust man, but the poison is extremely potent, he’s going to need another dose of all three potions, and I would suggest an additional two tears in the sealant.” She called the directions over her shoulder.

“Yes, mother.” Another familiar voice said and moments later, the relevant phials were handed to Harry. “He’s familiar with you, Potter, you get to be his nurse.”

Harry gave Beorn the potions and watched carefully as Narcissa waved her wand again.

“Excellent, he’ll sleep for a few hours, and be weak for a day or so, but he’ll be fine within a week.” She declared and Harry slumped in relief.

It was then that Harry's brain switched tracks, from focusing solely on Beorn to what was going on around him. He looked at Narcissa, his eyes widening, before turning to his trunk. Leaning against its outside were Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, inside it he could see a sea of faces. Two stood out.

“Mione? Remus?” He gasped and fell on his backside.

“Oh, so very elegant, Potter.” Snape shook his head.


	17. Chapter 17

_It was then that his brain switched tracks, from focusing solely on Beorn to what was going on around him. He looked at Narcissa, his eyes widening, before turning to his trunk. Leaning against its outside were Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, inside it he could see a sea of faces. Two stood out._

_“Mione? Remus?” He gasped and fell on his backside._

_“Oh, so very elegant, Potter.” Snape shook his head._

“You should know better than that, Severus. Potter’s never do elegant, not on the ground, anyway. A broom in the air is a different barrel of puffskeins.” Remus chided the potions’ master, a faint smirk on his face.

Harry however just sat there, not sure what to think. He’d been here for two weeks. _‘Was two weeks long enough to lose your mind?’_ He wondered. All he could do was look at them and blink. Were they even real?

“Oh, honestly, Harry, get up off the ground, it’s wet and you’re covered in… what exactly **_are_** you covered in?” Hermione demanded.

“Orc blood.” Harry replied, automatically doing as she said. He climbed to his feet, looked down at himself and grimaced. “Urgh… Gross…”

“Why don’t you shower, Mr Potter? I shall stay with your friend.” Narcissa Malfoy offered. “I doubt that he’ll wake inside the next six hours, but I may be wrong. He is considerably larger than these potions are designed for.”

“Come on, Harry, this way.” Hermione beckoned and he followed blindly. She led him into the trunk and then off to the right, through a large bedroom and into a luxurious bathroom. “You shower and I’ll get some clothes out for you.” She pushed him in the direction of the shower.

Half an hour later, he stumbled from the bathroom, wrapped in a thick and fluffy towel, to be greeted by Dean and Seamus sitting on the huge bed.

“Hey, Harry, come on, get dressed. We’ve got a lot to go over.” Dean stood up and dragged Seamus with him. “Chop, chop, mate.”

Once dressed, Harry left the bedroom, only to be tackled by Hermione.

“Oh, Harry, it’s so good to see you!” She beamed at him.

“Yeah, same here. Only… How the bloody hell did you get here?” Harry asked, after spitting out a mouthful of her hair.

“Oh… um… I…” Hermione didn’t know what to say.

“She stuffed us in your trunk, Potter. How do you **_think_** we got here?” Draco drawled.

“Malfoy?” Harry blinked a few times.

“Yes, Potter. The big space that she never showed you? Big enough to fly in? It’s two hundred and fifty acres. Plenty big enough for each of us to have our own cottage. And still only see the others when we want to.” Malfoy explained.

“Malfoy?” The tone of Harry’s voice changed, it was clear he was asking a different question, a slightly threatening question, but those watching weren’t sure what the question was.

“I said I would, Potter, and I meant it.” He was remembering a letter that McGonagall had slipped him, in it, Potter had begged him look after Hermione and had threatened to sic Luna and McGonagall on him, if he mistreated her.

“Okay then. So…? Who’s here?” Harry asked and everyone turned to look at Hermione.

She huffed and shook her head but began to answer. “When I left you at the Ministry, that first night, I went back to Hogsmeade and Aberforth Dumbledore told me that Kingsley wanted to see me right away. There’d been survivors, but the Ministry’s position meant that they would either be executed or have their cores bound and their memories wiped. Kingsley suggested that…” for the next hour Hermione told Harry what she and the others had been doing. And who had followed him.

Harry spent a few minutes clutching at this person or at that one, the twins a shock to his heart, but a good shock. He cried at the loss of Tonks, sad that little Teddy would grow up without his mother. Remus told Harry, that while he’d loved her, he hadn’t been in love with her, that was what he’d tried to explain to Harry when he found them at Grimmauld Place. Marrying her **_had_** been a mistake, yes, but that over the length of her pregnancy they’re come to an understanding. Neither of them regretted marrying, but they both considered it more of an arrangement than a love affair. But Remus would never regret it, it had given him Teddy.

“How many know? Outside you lot here, how many know?” Harry asked.

“Outside of us?” Hermione tilted her head. “Croaker, Kingsley, Flitwick, Pomfrey and Ron.”

“Ron? You told **_Ron?”_** Harry squawked. “But you couldn’t tell **_me?”_**

“I **_didn’t_** tell Ron, he figured it out for **_himself_**.” Hermione huffed. “That was why he was staying away. He said… he said he needed to learn how to accept the blame for his own actions and not to try and blame someone else, and that if he’d come with us, he knew that sooner or later, something would happen that he wouldn’t be able to cope with and he’d try an blame you. He felt it was better for both you and he if he didn’t get involved. He’s been seeing a mind healer, but…? This is Ron we’re talking about.”

“That’s going to take him ages…” Harry winced.

“It is.” She agreed. “Now enough about us, you can talk to us individually anytime and get more information. Tell us about you and what happened here.”

“Well… the veil spat me in the air, not high, just a few feet, but I managed to tuck and roll and not get hurt, which is good. Then Beorn turned up and-”

“Beorn?” Dennis and Colin both spoke at the same time.

“Uh… yeah. Beorn.”

“Um… can he really change into a bear?” Natalie ask after raising a hand.

“Yes, he ca- How did you know?” Harry started to answer and cut himself off mid-word.

“Beorn the skin-changer is a character out of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings series, Potter.” Snape was the one to answer, the wizarding raised looked confused and the muggle raised looked simply stunned.

“Character? Hemione?” Harry frowned.

“Tolkien wrote a number of books, Harry. Fiction books, extremely popular fiction books.” Hermione obediently answered. “The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, being the most popular.”

“Okay, so… how does that affect us?”

“It depends on when we are, do you know the current date?”

“Nope.”

“ _Tempus et locus,_ ” Hermione told him, “is the charm, Harry.”

Harry flicked his wand from its holster, into his hand. “ _Tempus et locus._ ” He said clearly.

**_4.27pm._ **

**_3 July 2941._ **

**_Beorn’s Hall,_ **

**_Beornings,_ **

**_Middle-Earth,_ **

**_Arda._ **

**_49°27’59” N, 7°57’15” E._ **

“Okay, we have a problem.” Hermione said after studying the floating letters and numbers.

“Why?”

“2941 is the year The Hobbit was set in.” Hermione screwed up her face as she answered.

“And?” Harry demanded.

“Muggle raised? Hands up who’s read The Hobbit?” Hermione asked. Colin, Dennis, Natalie, Dean and Justin responded by raising a hand. “Did any of you bring a copy with you?” All five nodded. “Excellent, with the copies I brought, we have eight. I’ll give you a broad outline, but if Lady Magic brought us here, I can’t see any reason why we have to let things go as they do in the books. We can-”

“Mr Potter? Your friend? He’s waking.” Narcissa called and Harry abandoned the conversation to dart back out of the trunk to Beorn’s side.

Back in the trunk, Draco sidled up to Hermione. “Why can’t you do a training memory of this book?”

Hermione looked at Draco and her head tilted in thought. “I probably could… but… if I did… or what about… hmm… Let me think on that for a bit, Draco, I’d have to get it just right…”

“What about doing it like one of our weekly briefing sessions?” Dean asked.

“Ooh, that might…” Hermione kept muttering as she walked into Harry’s library and began scribbling away on in a notebook.

Outside, Harry knelt beside his friend.

“Beorn? Beorn? Wake up, please, wake up.” Harry begged.

“Hmm? I am awake, little cat.” Beorn rumbled and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked at Harry before glancing over Harry’s shoulder. “Who are they and where did they come from, Harry?” His voice was tired and weak.

“They were in my trunk apparently. They’re my friends from Hogwarts.” Harry answered.

“They are Hogwarts?” Beorn asked.

“Yes. Well… A good chunk of it, anyway.”

“Help me sit up?” Beorn’s manners were very much the same as Hagrid’s and his heart was just as large. Harry had been around Beorn enough to know that magic was not the answer to moving the man, right now.

“Bill? Charlie?” Harry called the redheads. “Give me a hand? Snape, Remus? A chair suitable, please?” A few exchanged glances, a muttered spell and some Weasley heft… and Beorn was seated in a semi-reclined deck chair.

“I like this chair.” He nodded and ran his hand along an armrest before looking up at Harry. “Will you introduce your friends?”

“Of course, I will. Mione? Mione?” Harry called and Draco emerged with a still engrossed Hermione. “Hermione’s writing, goodness knows what, but you’ll always find her with a book or a quill in her hands, she’s been my best friend for years. Draco’s the blonde leading her. Behind them are… Guys wave when I call your names?” Most of them nodded. “Thank, guys. Behind Hermione and Draco are Dean… Seamus… Colin… Dennis… Oliver… and Natalie. Move over guys and let some of the others through. Thanks.” He added when they all shuffled to the left. “Next we have… Luna… Neville… and… ooh, Neville your parents? Sorry Beorn, Neville’s parents were badly hurt a few days after my parents were killed. Um… Alice and Frank, right?” Frank nodded and smiled. “Good, good. Then there’s Angelina… Katie… Alicia… Fleur and Parvati. Shove along? Ta… Padma is Parvati’s twin, Lavender… Euan… the red twins are Fred and George, don’t bother trying to tell them apart, only a few of us can. Lee… Justin… Mr Ollivander… Headley… Move along, guys. Thanks. Bill and Charlie are the other two redheads… the ladies are Professor McGonagall and Mrs Malfoy, the man in black is Severus Snape, my potions master and the man with the baby is Remus Lupin and the baby is his son Teddy. Remus was my father’s friend and Snape was my mother’s.” Harry beamed as Remus handed him Teddy and the little boy just smiled and blew bubbles at him. “Remus asked me to be Teddy’s godfather.” Seeing that Beorn didn’t understand the significance, Harry added, “if something happened to Remus, it would fall to me or Hermione, who is Teddy’s godmother, to take him in and raise him.”

“Ah.” Beorn nodded before frowning. “I do not have enough beds for all these people. I don’t think I even have enough floor space for them.”

“We came prepared. We have our own houses that we can shrink and put almost anywhere.” Hermione offered. “Or we can stay in the Nest, just remove the pocket-space frame from Harry’s trunk and put it somewhere.”

“We don’t need level ground, just space.” Bill added.

“I do not have much space within my hedges.” Beorn warned.

“That’s not a problem.” Bill said. “All we need is space, everything else we can provide, most of it is already in Harry’s trunk, just waiting for him to **_open the bloody thing._** ” The last little bit was directed at Harry in a mock snarl. Harry just laughed and waved at Bill.

“How much space?” Beorn asked, curious. “And how will you protect your houses?”

“We can put up wards to keep out any, that mean ill to those that live in them.” Bill answered. “There’s more to it than that, but I’d be happy to explain as we put them in place.”

“I will listen. There is a valley, it is clear of tress, but has many rocks.” Beorn gestured off to the south-east. “There is a stream over that way, leading down to it is a field that I have not bothered to clear of rocks. If that is suitable, you may use that.”

Harry smiled to himself, not once had time been raised. Poor Beorn, Hogwarts was moving in.

Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, Harry reconnected with his friends. He got to know Draco, away from the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry, away from Lucius Malfoy’s pureblood-mania, and he found that he quite liked the man. Seeing Professor McGonagall had had upset him, not that he didn’t want her there, but that she’d felt the need to leave Hogwarts, only for her to tell him that they were as much a part of Hogwarts as Hogwarts was of them.

And she still had witches and wizards to teach. Remus, Snape, McGonagall, Bill, Charlie, Frank and Alice were their teachers and other than Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Fleur, Fred, George and Lee, the rest of them were still in school and McGonagall had been appointed as headmistress. Classes were the usual stable of Charms, DADA, Herbology, Potions, CoMC, Runes, Arithmancy and Transfiguration. History of magic was shelved as a standalone subject and combined with magical theory, into something that was more a discussion group than a structured class and as such, had pretty much anyone that felt like it, teaching. Charms, with Remus as teacher. DADA was, of course, Frank, as he’d been the Auror. Alice moved a glasshouse from the Nest and was using it as herbology space. Potions was Snape’s domain, and no-one wanted to challenge that. Bill covered runes and arithmancy and Charlie was rapt to have hippogriffs for his CoMC classes. And transfiguration was always going to be McGonagall’s class.

There was no schedule, as such. A class ran for an hour and everyone attended, regardless of what year they’d been in. The teachers kept track of who was learning what and who needed help where. It flowed surprisingly well. Harry was amazed to find that he was actually learning, not just getting by. It was a pleasant surprise.

Even Beorn would wander into the pavilion, which is where all but CoMC and potions classes were held, and listen quietly, much of it was beyond his understanding, but that didn’t stop him from listening in. Ollivander gave them lectures in wandlore and wandsmithing, and taught Harry how to use his staff as a weapon, with Snape his sparring partner.

No-one, other than Bill, was **_too_** concerned about the ‘no meat’ condition of their stay, but after a quiet talk with Harry, Beorn was happy to amend that to be, no hunting in his lands. Go outside them and that was fine, but his lands were off limits.

The day after all the houses were moved from the Nest to the Hogwarts valley, as it had become known, Narcissa broached the subject of the werewolves. She’d talked to Severus… and Harry was still trying to get his head around calling the man, Severus… about the possibility of using the de-aging potion to counter the curse/disease, and he’d said that for the those bitten during the battle, it would definitely work if used in conjunction with a setting agent once the de-aging was complete. Remus was another matter, he’d been bitten as a child and while the potion would revert him in age, he had only been four years old when Greyback had attacked. Unless he wanted to grow up all over again, Severus would have to create an aging potion to go with the rest of the treatment.

Ten days, it took, just ten days and Severus Snape had eradicated lycanthropy and the fear that came with it. Yes, it was a stressful twenty-four hours, poor Teddy didn’t understand why his daddy was gone, only that he wanted him back, but the potions couldn’t be rushed. Six hours it took to de-age Remus back to the age he’d been when Greyback infected him. Then he had to stay like that for another six hours while the setting agent saturated his system, followed by a purging potion and another six hours to clear any remnants of either of the first two potions from his blood.

Then, and only then could he take the aging potion. But he’d thought about it, long and hard over the past week and a bit, how being the father to a lunar sensitive child was no easy task and at thirty-eight, he felt that cutting ten or twelve years from his age was going to make life a heck of a lot easier when it came to his raising his son.

Bill also took the chance to remove the taint of Greyback from his face, revealing a face that was handsome enough to make even his wife gasp. Fred joined Natalie, Katie, Colin and Parvati in de-aging the few weeks needed to take them back to the ages they were, during the week that led up to the battle at Hogwarts. But of course, Fred wouldn’t do it without George, they’d been two minutes apart in age for their entire lives and that wasn’t going to change, now. Nor would Parvati and Padma be separated, not by the likes of Greyback.

Yes, it had been a stressful twenty-four hours. But that was over, and things were beginning to settle again. Classes were underway and the younger students were having a grand time actually being able to relax into their classes, no longer did they have to worry about perfect marks or avoiding Death-Eaters, now all they had to deal with were the Professors that actually worked with them.

So far, not one person regretted the choices they’d made. Not one regretted leaving the wizarding world, even if all they did was stay in this little valley.

Seventeen days after Beorn have been injured and Hogwarts had invaded his lands, Bill warned them that someone had crossed the wards. Not just one person, but many, and in two different locations.

“It’s time, to change a few things.” Harry grinned. Hermione had given each of them a training memory, or a briefing memory more like, with a summary of Tolkien’s stories. Enough that they knew what would happen if they didn’t step in. “Riders up!” All they were doing today was surveillance, they needed to know more about what they were up against and to give each person the chance to concentrate solely on observing, Harry had attempted to form a mental connection with Buckbeak and explain to him what they would need. Surprisingly it worked and Hermione, Draco, Bill, Charlie, Remus, Severus, Oliver, Fred and George were mounted on some of the hippogriff mares, while Buckbeak carried Harry.

They were taking to the air in three waves, two observers and two protectors. Harry guarding Hermione and Oliver guarding Bill in the first wave, Bill would stay for the second wave and would guard Remus, while Draco watched over Charlie. And Harry would join the third wave, in which, Fred would guard Harry and George would guard Severus. The watchers were chosen for their observational skills, Hermione had the ability to focus so intently that it was like a version of tunnel vision, as a curse-breaker Bill was accustomed to carefully observing his environment, Remus had studied dark creatures and would know what to look for, likewise Charlie was used to dealing with dragons and watching for the tell-tale signs of explosions, Harry was a seeker and could pick up the smallest of details, while Severus had lived as a double agent for decades and was able to read a person’s body language in minute detail.

It was hoped that this would give them the best analysis of what they were facing. Harry left the third wave and joined with Katie, Angelina and Alicia, who were on brooms and following the those on the second path. According to Hermione, that was most likely to be the hobbit and the dwarves. And as usual, she was right.

But instead of it being one hobbit, one wizard and thirteen dwarves… it was one hobbit, thirteen dwarves and **_two_** wizards.

Katie swung about and lined up with Harry, a few feet above him. “Harry, we’ve got a problem, Beorn’s spotted them and said they were headed in slightly the wrong direction, if they kept going the way they were, they were going to miss his place, altogether. He’s going to chase then onto the right path. But…”

“But…?”

“Angie says that there’s a wizard from our world with them.”

“Let’s go and check them out.” Harry sighed. “We don’t need someone blundering in and ruining Hermione and Severus’ plans.”

“Cool. This way.” Katie banked to the left and Buckbeak followed her.

As they crossed the last creek, Harry realised who the second wizard was and had to bite his hand to stop from swearing. Buckbeak however, had no such qualms, he screamed his anger at the wizard for abandoning him and swooped low, one carefully closed clawed foot whacking the wizard on the back of the shoulders and knocking from his feet. The wizard fell forward into a somersault and rolled back to their feet and kept going, while Harry managed to get Buckbeak to break off and head for the Hogwarts valley.

They landed and once the hippogriff came to a halt, Harry slid down a sweaty shoulder.

“I’ll see to him, Harry.” Charlie called and bowed to Buckbeak. The stallion was tired enough to bow back and just walk straight up to the redhead. “You go brief the others.”

Harry stomped into the pavilion and took a seat on the speaker’s platform and within a minute or two, everyone had gathered to discuss the situation.

“Hermione? Can you take a briefing memory from all the watchers, please? Then… we have another issue. We have the numbers wrong. The grey wizard isn’t their only wizard.”

“What?!” Hermione squawked. “That’s not in the story. He’s-”

“Sirius is with them.” That was answered by complete and utter silence.

“Sirius?” Remus whispered.

“Black?” Severus grimaced.

Harry laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, Buckbeak walloped him on the back and knocked him ass over tea-kettle.”

Severus snorted and Remus huffed.

“He deserved it.” Remus smirked. “He kept Buckbeak locked up in Grimmauld Place.”

“Ooh, that wouldn’t have gone down well.” Charlie winced.

“Oh, it was fine while Sirius was around, Beaky liked him and from what Hermione tells me of Hagrid’s comments, Beaky wasn’t all that attached to the mares that Hagrid had at the time.”

“Yes, they were too closely related.” Hermione explained.

“Ah, that’s different, I had wondered why he was so comfortable here.” Charlie nodded.

“I’m going to assume that, Harry, you are going to stay in Beorn’s house, tonight?” Remus asked.

“Yeah, I’ll go as Longfang and stay up in the rafters.” Harry nodded.

“Take Buckbeak with you, Harry. He deserves to see Siri.” Remus said.

“Will do.” Harry waved and headed back to where Charlie was tending the hippogriffs. “Hey, Beaky? Wanna come and scare Padfoot?” He asked the stallion.

Harry wasn’t really certain that Buckbeak actually understood what he was saying, but the stallion understood that he was asking something and wanted Beaky to go with him. Beaky nodded his head and attempted to preen Harry’s hair, but as usual that only resulted in Harry’s hair looking as messy as ever.

The two made their way up to Beorn’s house and greeted the skin-changer as he went about his evening chores.

“Hey, Beorn. Got a houseful, huh?”

“Dwarves.” The big man grimaced.

“Better dwarves than orcs.” Harry said.

“I wouldn’t let orcs near my house, and neither would you.” Beorn huffed.

“Buckbeak and I are going to go in and watch them. Beaky will stay with the cattle and I’ll roost in the rafters.” Harry patted the grumpy man’s arm. “You go and get some rest in the little house.” The little house was what everyone had taken to calling the house the Beorn had built for Harry, even though Harry had moved down to Hogwarts valley to stay with Remus and Teddy.

“Thank you, my friend, I would rest much easier knowing that you are watching over my animals.” Beorn gave him a small smile.

Harry just smiled and bent down, shifting into Longfang as he went. Then he and Buckbeak rounded the edge of the house to a second entrance. Harry shifted back to human form long enough to open the door and hear the snoring, then he was back to Longfang, to lead Buckbeak through the house and into the barn area. The stallion snorted softly at the noise, but carefully edged his way through the prone bodies until he stood beside Sirius, who as Padfoot was a whole lot bigger than Harry recalled. Harry assumed that was the difference in magic, here as opposed to magic on earth.

Harry spent the night perched in the rafters, just gazing at his sleeping godfather, he owed the idiot a swat, just like Buckbeak, the reckless prat had left him behind.

Morning came and one by one, the dwarves rose and headed for the kitchen area. They may have eyed off the food, but none of them touched a thing. When the hobbit, Bilbo, Hermione said was his name, joined the others, Buckbeak, nudged at Padfoot’s tail.

Padfoot opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, then… he yelped and leapt to his paws, his hackles raised and his teeth bared, only to stop and tilt his head. He shifted back into Sirius and gaped at the sight in front of him.

“Buckbeak?” He gasped.


	18. Chapter 18

_Harry spent the night perched in the rafters, just gazing at his sleeping godfather, he owed the idiot a swat, just like Buckbeak, the reckless prat had left him behind._

_Morning came and one by one, the dwarves rose and headed for the kitchen area. They may have eyed off the food, but none of them touched a thing. When the hobbit, Bilbo, Hermione said was his name, joined the others, Buckbeak, nudged at Padfoot’s tale._

_Padfoot opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, then… he yelped and leapt to his paws, his hackled raised and his teeth bared, only to stop and tilt his head. He shifted back into Sirius and gaped at the sight in front of him._

_“Buckbeak?” He gasped._

The hippogriff squawked an angry sound and flapped his wings, doing his best to beat at Sirius with them. Sirius ducked and dodged and tried to avoid the huge wings. The sounds that the two were making, alerted the dwarves and they turned to see what they thought was a beast attacking the younger wizard and all reached for their weapons.

“Stop. Stop. Buckbeak will not hurt him, he is just angry at Black.” A deep rough voice told them and when they looked, they saw a huge man enter the house, through a smaller secondary door.

“That is **_obvious_** , but why?” Bilbo asked.

“That is not my story to tell, little bunny.” Beorn shook his head.

As they talked, Sirius was trying to calm an agitated hippogriff down. It wasn’t until a massive panther leapt down from the rafters and joined the hippogriff, that he started to respond to Sirius’ crooning words. The panther stood beside the hippogriff and huffed at them both. The hippogriff bent his neck down and with a closed beak, rifled through the panther’s fur.

“Oh, so you like the kitty, but not me, huh?” Sirius chuckled, only to cut himself off when the ‘kitty’ leapt up and knocked him back into the hay, walloping him on the side of the head with a great paw and shifting into a familiar boy, leaning over him.

“Don’t call me a ‘kitty’, Sirius goddamned Orion bloody _**Black!”**_ Harry snarled at his godfather. “You miserable mutt! Why the hell did you not take Bellatrix seriously? She hit you with a bloody _confundus_, not even a NEWT level spell.” With each sentence, Harry whacked Sirius on the back of the head. Then huffed and stomped over to Beorn and the others. “Hello, I’m Harry, that idiot’s godson.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Sirius and Buckbeak.

“Which one?” The dwarf leader asked.

“The idiot that doesn’t take things as seriously as his name would suggest.” Harry shrugged.

“You’re Prongs’ son?” Bilbo asked. “He talked about you.”

“I’m sure he did. He-”

“Harry!?” Sirius gasped.

“Oh, now he catches on. Bloody hell, Sirius, no wonder mum thought Moony was brains behind the Marauders. Dad leaves his wand in the bedroom, knowing there’s a murderer hunting them and you can’t even counter a simple fourth year hex.” Harry ranted, throwing the dwarves a quick wink, to show that he was just tweaking Sirius’ nose.

“Harry James Potter! You take that back, you know damn well, I was the best of the Marauders.” Sirius stalked and went to grab his godson only for the boy to dance away from him.

“Really? So, the idea to become Animagi was yours, was it? What about the Marauders’ map, that was your idea? Or the catnip in McGonagall’s slippers, that was you? Or the-”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Prongs was the ideas man, Moony worked out how to do them, Wormtail kept watch and I carried them out.” Sirius huffed, before tilting his head. “But I never told you about those, so who did?”

“Who do you think?” Harry smirked.

“Bloody werewolf… can’t keep his mouth shut to save himself.” The complaint was muttered in an affectionate voice.

“Now, why would Moony be telling me that? No. Not Moony. _**He**_ didn't tell me. **_McGonagall_** told me.” Harry’s voice was filled with supressed laughter.

“McGonagall?! How’d _**she**_ know?” Sirius demanded.

“Siri, she’s been the head of Gryffindor for decades, do you really think a bunch of half-assed second-years were going to pull a robe over her head?” Harry just gave him a ‘say what, now?’, look.

“…huh…” Sirius frowned in thought. “Oh, bloody **_bollocks_** , she knew. Every time we left the tower, she **_knew_**. That sneaky, conniving, secret-keeping, bloody **_cat!_** ” Sirius spat the last word out.

“Language, Mr Black. Five points and detention with Professor Lupin, starting in one hour.” A woman’s sharp voice snapped Sirius from his rant and had him standing at attention.

“Yes, Professor.” He responded automatically, before realising who had spoken and how he’d reacted. He spluttered and smacked at a laughing Harry. “You shut up, Potter. You try not reacting, when she speaks like that.”

“Ha, I’ll have you know that **_I_** only ever received a single detention from Professor McGonagall, Snape was usually the one to have **_that_** privilege.” Harry stuck his tongue at Sirius.

“Typical of Snivellus.” Sirius sneered the derogatory nickname.

“That is quite enough, Sirius.” Harry smacked his hand down on the table making Sirius jump. “You are not eight-years old anymore, you are thirty-eight, old enough to let go of petty disputes. Severus Snape lived as a double agent for twenty years, Sirius, that alone earnt him the right to be treated with respect.” 

“But…”

“No, buts.” Harry shook his head. “I saw his memories, Siri, he lay **_dying_** , bleeding to death from the same snake that nearly killed Mr Weasley, but he was **_still_** trying to help us defeat old snakeface.”

“Huh.” Sirius grunted. “So, he died?”

“No, but everyone back there, thinks so.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand…” Sirius frowned.

“Things got… bad after the DoM. Dumbledore went hunting horcruxes and-”

 ** _“Horcruxes!?”_** Sirius squawked. “Who the bloody hell made- Oh, tell me he didn’t? Please, tell me he didn’t? That was what we were protecting in the DoM?”

“No, that was the prophecy orb. And yes, snakeface made horcruxes, seven of the blasted things.” Harry noticed that the dwarves were now pretty much ignoring he and Sirius and had gotten to talking with Beorn and McGonagall.

“Seven?! Oh, Harry…”

“Hang on, it gets worse.” Harry started, only for Sirius to grab him and hug him tight.

“Worse? I can’t cope with worse.” Sirius whined into Harry’s hair.

“Too, bad, we had to. Dumbledore found one of snakeface’s horcruxes and the idiot picked it up.” Harry sighed. “He knew better, but he let his desire for what it was in, affect his judgement. And it cursed him, a withering curse. Snape managed to stunt the progression, but he couldn’t eliminate it. Then Dumbledore turned around and ordered Snape to kill him, not then, but when it was most likely to secure Snape in snakeface’s favour.”

“Well, shite…” Sirius muttered.

“Yeah, only problem was, he didn’t **_tell_** anyone, so we all thought that Snape had actually murdered him.”

Sirius closed his eyes in disbelief. “Probably a good thing I wasn’t there, then.”

“Definitely.” Harry nodded. “After that, we had Bill and Fleur’s wedding being gate-crashed by the Death-Eater and Hermione, Ron and me going on the lam. Oh, and Moony married Tonks and had a kid. Tonks died in the big battle at Hogwarts just a few weeks ago.”

“Moony… did what…?” Sirius asked in shock.

“He married Tonks. Realised it was a mistake, the day she told him she was pregnant, Teddy was born in April, poor little bugger was less than a month old when he lost his mum and so very nearly lost his dad.”

“Remus survived?” Sirius brightened up.

“Of course, he did.” Harry just shook his head.

“Oh, thank the gods.”

“We did it, we got all the horcruxes… you know, it’s funny, Dumbledore gave me the task of destroying them, but all up? Including the one in the Chamber of Secrets? I only killed two. The diary snakeface was using to control Ginny that year. And the diadem of Ravenclaw. “

“What were the others?”

“There was the diary, I got that in second year. A ring, that was what cursed Dumbledore. A locket, it would have saved us a shit-load of hunting if we’d thought to ask Kreacher, Regulus gave him the task of destroying and he’d spent the past twenty years trying to fulfil his master’s last order. Ron got that one, damn-near cut it in half. Then there was a cup, we think it belonged to Hufflepuff, but no-one’s quite sure. Hermione stabbed it with a basilisk fang, while McGonagall was emptying Hogwarts of students. The diadem we found in the Room of Requirement, that I stabbed with another fang and then kicked it into a ball of fiendfyre. Neville got snakeface’s snake, she was after Ron and Hermione. And… me…” Harry sighed.

“What?” Sirius’ voice and face went blank.

“I was a Horcruxe. Dumbledore knew, but he never told me, he left it for Snape. I had to die for Voldemort to be destroyed.” Harry whispered, even now, it still hurt that Dumbledore would keep that from him. “I went to him and I let him cast a Killing Curse at me. That’s what Dumbledore hoped I would do, it put me in a unique position. I’d been hit with a Killing Curse, but I had more than just one soul in my body, the other piece might have been smaller, but it was still there. It was also unstable, which allowed me a choice. I could go on, be with mum and dad, or I could go back and end snakeface’s reign. And that’s what I did. I didn’t kill him, not really, what I did was turn his spell back on him.” Harry ended on a whisper.

“Oh, Harry…” Sirius pressed his face into Harry hair again.

“Then Kingsley found us… The Minister had been under the _imperius_ and had been killed at Hogwarts.”

“Mordred’s Law?” Sirius asked.

“Yep. I was the only Class One warrant.” 

“What did you do to deserve that?”

“Snakeface controlled the Ministry.” Harry's mouth twisted up at one side.

“So, nothing really.”

“Does breaking into Gringotts count?” Harry asked rhetorically. “I was tried under Mordred’s Law and convicted. They let me choose my sentence, Life Imprisonment, Life in Exile with my core and memories bound, or The Veil. I chose the Veil.”

“Oh, Harry…” Sirius whispered.

“Thank god for Hermione, huh? She organised everything. My finances, a trunk, clothes, weapons, wands, food… everything. She’d put pocket-spaces in an expanded capacity trunk. The one thing she didn’t tell me was that she also put a good chunk of Hogwarts in that same trunk.” Harry huffed.

“She what?” Sirius leant back and frowned at his godson.

“She stashed thirty-plus people in a pocket-space in my trunk. I only found out about them… what… two, two-and-a-half weeks ago. We’ve built a nice little village down near the stream.” Harry pointed in the general direction of Hogwarts valley.

“Thirty people? Hermione put thirty people in a trunk?” Sirius repeated.

“Seventy-four eggs of differing species, forty-eight bowtruckles in three branches, thirty-three people, twenty-two hippogriffs, eighteen owls, sixteen unicorns, eleven kneazles in kitten, six fairies, two nests, and a good bloody chunk of Hogwarts.” Harry agreed brightly.

“Oh, hell…”

“Yep. Now, introduce your new friends and then you have detention.” Harry hugged Sirius and pushed himself out of the older man’s arms. “Come on.”

“Oh, sure, intro- What? I have what?” Sirius spluttered.

“You heard the Headmistress, you have detention and I have CoMC with Charlie Weasley.” Harry kept walking.

“Harry, I’m thirty-eight, I’ve been out of Hogwarts for twenty years, I don’t do detentions, anymore.”

“Yes, you do.” Both Harry and McGonagall replied.

Sirius looked from one to the other. “Really?” He whined. “You’re really going to make **_me_** do detention?”

“Yes.” McGonagall nodded. “Bellatrix Lestrange was no match for you, and you let her take you down with a fourth-year spell, clearly you need to refresh your education.”

Sirius sighed. “Yes, Professor McGonagall.”

“Good lad. Introductions, if you please, Mr Black.” McGonagall gave him a small smile.

“Yes, Professor.” He repeated. “Gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to give a wave when I say your name, because Merlin knows, I don’t have half of you right, I’m sure.” Each of the dwarves nodded. “Excellent. Bilbo Baggins is the Baggins of Bag End.” Bilbo stood and gave a slight bow. “The leader of this Company is Thorin Oakenshield.” Thorin stayed seated but bowed his head and shoulders, slightly. “His nephews, Fíli and Kíli, watch out for them, they’re like the twins.” The two lads shook their fists at him, playfully. “Thorin’s cousins Dwalin, Balin, Oín and Gloín.” The four responded with shallow bows. “The brothers Ri, Dori, Nori and Ori.” The three were on the far side of the table and simply bowed their head and shoulders. “Bifur, Bofur and Bombur. As far as I can figure, they’re cousins.” The three grinned and waved happily. “And the last of their number is Gandalf the Grey, he says he’s a wizard, but I’ve yet to see any sign of it, other than his Dumbledore-like taste in clothes.” Gandalf wore an odd express, it looked a cross between startled and offended, but Sirius ignored him. “Gentlemen, I have the great privilege to introduce my godson, Harry Potter, and one of the greatest transfiguration Masters that Hogwarts has ever seen, Professor Minerva McGonagall.” The respect and affection that Sirius had for these two people clearly showed in his voice.

“And your current host is Beorn Changeling, Master of the Beornings.” Harry added, gesturing to Beorn, as he stood by the stove. “The only rule for staying in the Beornings is no hunting on Beorn’s land. Outside his borders is fair game, but not inside.” Most of the dwarves didn’t look too pleased about that, so Harry added. “You can eat meat, just don’t cook it in Beorn's house. If you’d like, you’re all welcome to come down to Hogwarts valley, we’ve plenty of space with decent beds and bathrooms aplenty. Plus, Bill was talking about a spit roast, the Weasley boys do like their food.”

“Holdover of having Molly for a mother, I’ll bet.” Sirius added.

“Molly of the heavenly chocolate cake?” Bilbo asked.

“That’d be the one.” Harry grinned. “Her food was… hmm…” He closed his eyes in a semblance of bliss, earning him a laugh from a few dwarves. “Bill’s wife, Fleur, tricked the recipe out of Molly, and hers is just as good.”

“Bill is a lucky man, then.” Sirius smirked.

“With a veela for a wife? Of course, he’s lucky.” 

“A veela?” Asked the redheaded dwarf, pulling out a notebook and pencil.

“Yeah, they’re… well they’re only part-human, but they’re stunningly beautiful as women, they don’t hand down the veela traits to their sons. It stays dormant in males and only comes out in their female descendants. Hmm... Hermione had better be careful.” Harry answered.

“Why, Hermione?” Sirius frowned and asked McGonagall quietly.

“Hermione and Draco are courting, and his paternal great-grandmother was a veela.” McGonagall replied.

“Hermione and Draco? Draco Malfoy? Harry brought a **_Malfoy_**?” Sirius spluttered.

“Technically, Hermione did. Lucius was using the _cruciatus_ on Narcissa and Draco, almost every day. All because they left the battle and Lucius had to choose between his lord and his wife, who’d already chosen her son over her husband.” Harry explained.

“Ooh, Lucius is such a prick.” Sirius sneered.

“Agreed.” Harry nodded. “That’s why Hermione offered them the chance to come with her. They emptied the Malfoy vaults, released the house-elves and took anything that was worth selling and left him with an empty house and an almost empty vault. I believe something was said, about leaving a few κnuts behind.”

“Remind me never to piss Hermione off.” Sirius grimaced.

“Oh, that wasn’t Hermione, that was all Draco and Narcissa. Draco said he also emptied Lucius dungeons, too, had the victims treated and sent to muggle hospitals.” Harry grinned.

“Ah…” Sirius didn’t know what to say.

“Don’t worry about it, Siri, they’re still Slytherins, they’re just our Slytherins. Now… You have detention with our Charms Professor and the rest of us could use some breakfast. What’s say we get out of Beorn’s space and head down to the Hogwarts pavilion?” Harry suggested.

An hour later Sirius had been dragged off by the ear, by a muttering Remus who had a laughing Teddy in his arms. The rest of the Company very deliberately took their cues from the valley’s residents and ignored the squawking and spluttering wizard.

Gandalf was getting a short/sharp lesson in magic… from a pair of third year students. Natalie and Dennis were talking about their charms and DADA lessons and how Remus and Frank were teaching them how to use various different charms as both defensive and offensive. Gandalf of course, commented that magic couldn’t be used in more than one manner. Natalie, sweet little Natalie… tore into him and proceeded to explain the four different spell types and how almost any spell had both defensive and offensive uses. She used [_augamenti_](water%20creation%20charm) as an example, the water conjuration spell could be used to fill a jug to drink from or it could be used in conjunction with a containment spell, to drown someone. Dennis piped up that a tickling jinx could make a person laugh and brighten their day, but if overpowered or left on a person for minutes at a time, would cause nerve damage or make them pass out for lack of oxygen. Natalie added that summoning charm could summon a book from across the room or it could summon a person’s heart. Colin offered a sleeping charm, saying that it could sooth a frightened child or sedate the person struggling under Natalie’s [_augamenti_](water%20creation%20charm).

Gandalf replied that magic shouldn’t be used just willy-nilly, only to have Padma bluntly inform him that magic was a part of them, if they didn’t use it, it would use them, that was commonly known as accidental magic and until they were through the worst of puberty, accidental magic would happen any time they were highly emotional, so his comment was just plain irresponsible as far as young witches and wizards go.

Harry tuned them out after a few minutes and turned his attention to the dwarves. Just in time to hear Bofur mention dragons.

“Dragons?” Harry asked. “What was that, about dragons?”

“Smaug, the chief-est calamity of our age.” Bofur replied, cheerfully.

“Yes, yes, I got that, but what about dragons?” Harry waved off the first half of his own comment.

“Ah… Harry? Smaug **_is_** a dragon.” Dean told his former dormmate.

 ** _“What?!_** Nobody said anything about a dragon. Hermione! Hermione! You never said anything about a dragon!” Harry nearly yelled. “No, no, no. I didn’t sign up for another dragon.” Harry shook his head frantically.

“Well, isn’t that just too bad, Harry? You’re the only one of us with any dragon-related combat experience.” Hermione replied tartly.

“But what about Charlie? And… and Bill? Hell, what about Fleur? She did the first task, too.”

“Oh, there’s no doubt, Charlie's got more dragon experience than the lot of us put together, and Bill’s got plenty in regard to astral dragons, but no, Harry. When it comes to actual fight or flight against a dragon, you and Fleur are our only experience and she had less than five minutes in the arena, but you had a couple of minutes in the arena and then were flying against it for another fifteen minutes. Plus, the time with the Gringotts dragon. Between you, Fleur, Charlie and Bill, surely we can come up with something.” Hermione explained her reasoning.

Harry glared at Hermione, his mind ticking over. “Who knows the most about this dragon, Hermione, you or Thorin or Gandalf?”

“Um… I don’t know.” Hermione admitted.

“Right, you take notes, please. Thorin, tell me about the dragon, please?”

“It’s a-” Bofur started, only to have Harry silence him with a flick of a wand and a sharp look.

“ ** _You_** … are not Thorin, shut up. Thorin, please?”

“Smaug is the last of the great fire drakes, he’s approximately… and I say approximately because, while I saw him, that sight was filled with smoke and fire. Gauging his size was not easy, those of us that survived, conferred and together we estimated that he was somewhere around two-hundred feet long and about forty foot to the top of the shoulder. His head, I shall never forget, it’s length was at least four times my height.” He closed his eyes in thought. “His body was long and slender, his tail was the length of his head, neck and body, put together. He used the claws of his wings to walk upon, like they were feet. And his chest would glow as he drew breath for fire.” His eyes opened and he looked at Harry. “More than that? I cannot say.”

“Charlie?” Harry asked. “What’s the closest comparison?”

“Cripes, Harry, that’s huge.” Charlie groaned. “The Ironbelly is the biggest I know of and they only get to six tonnes. Gringotts use Ironbellies to guard the more affluent vaults. I’d say, given the dimensions that Thorin provided and that fact that the beastie flies, it’s likely to weigh somewhere about thirty-forty tonnes. Let’s say half-a-dozen times the size of an Ironbelly.”

“Bugger.” Harry dropped his head to the table and knocked it against the surface a few times before looking up. “Gandalf? How resistant to magic is Smaug?”

“Resistant? In what way?” The grey wizard tilted his head in confusion.

“Stunning charms. Cutting curses. Confundus hexes. Blasting hexes. He breathes fire, what about an augamenti down his throat? Ice conjuration. Gouging spells. Is he impervious to them?” Harry rattled off a few different types of offensive spells.

“I… I have no idea…” The old wizard blinked and stammered.

“Right. Well, we can work around that, I suppose.” Harry huffed. “Oh, Gandalf, Beorn wanted a word with you. Something about a necromancer at Dol Guldur and tombs of Rhudaur, he said. You’d best go and talk to him.” He waved a hand to dismiss the wizard. 

“What else did he say?” Gandalf leant forward.

“To me? Nothing. Said it was white council business.” Harry shrugged.

“I see. In that case…? By you leave, ladies, I shall depart.” Gandalf nodded to Narcissa and McGonagall and left the pavilion, hurrying back to Beorn’s Hall.

“Severus? Would you follow him? I don’t trust him to tell us the entire story, he’s too like Dumbledore.” Harry requested.

“Certainly. May I ask that Justin join me? We both share the same form, that of an eagle owl, albeit mine is considerably darker.” The potions master said.

“That’s up to Justin.” Harry replied. “If he wants to, sure.” Justin gave Harry a grin and followed his adopted Uncle. “I’d like everyone to write up a list of offensive spells that we can try on the dragon. Charlie, Bill, you two get together with Hermione and create a series of briefing memories for us, on some of the harder jobs you’ve had, please. Fleur, if you could give your memory of the first task? We’ve got a little bit leeway timewise, so let’s use it well. Okay?”

“We don’t have much time.” Thorin corrected. “We have to be in place on Durin’s Day to gain access to a secret passage into the mountain.”

“When’s that?”

“Durin’s Day is the first day of the last moon of Autumn, when both the sun and the moon are seen together in the sky. This year that falls upon the 19th of October.” Thorin answered.

“Well, today’s only the 21st of July, we’ve got more time than I thought.” Harry nodded a pleased little smile on his face.

“But we still have some three-hundred-and-fifty miles to go.” Kíli objected.

“And Mirkwood to get through.” Fíli added.

“Thranduil will not willingly allow us passage.” Thorin warned.

“Oh, that’s not really that much of an issue. We figured we’d just fly.” Harry shrugged.


	19. Chapter 19

_“Durin’s Day is the first day of the last moon of Autumn, when both the sun and the moon are seen together in the sky. This year that falls upon the 19 th of October.” Thorin answered._

_“Well, today’s only the 21 st of July, we’ve got more time than I thought.” Harry nodded a pleased little smile on his face._

_“But we still have some three-hundred-and-fifty miles to go.” Kíli objected._

_“And Mirkwood to get through.” Fíli added._

_“Thranduil will not willingly allow us passage.” Thorin warned._

_“Oh, that’s not really that much of an issue. We figured we’d just fly.” Harry shrugged._

**_“Fly?!”_** It came from a number of the dwarves.

“Fly.” Harry nodded, his mind already on the ‘how’. “Hermione? We **_have_** got enough brooms, haven’t we?”

“Yes, Harry. We’ve got plenty of brooms and carpets. And Ollivander, Remus and the twins are working on getting a deck chair flying. Our biggest issue is going to be… Can the dwarves and Bilbo use them? Do they have enough of a core to power them? I mean they’re not human and as far as I’m aware all magical creatures have a core, I just don’t know about dwarves and hobbits.”

“Should we have Miss Sissy test them?” Headley asked.

“Test?” Bilbo asked. “What sort of test?”

“It’s just a charm, Mr Baggins.” Narcissa assured him. “Nothing invasive. Depending on the results, I may request a few drops of drop.”

“Blood!” Hermione snapped her head up. “If they don’t have a core, we can add our blood to a storage crystal and use that to power the brooms or carpets.”

“We’d have to add some of the rider’s blood, or the crystal will reject them.” Ollivander added.

“Won’t that clash with our magical blood?” Hermione frowned.

“Not if it’s added to the crystal before the magical blood, but it would be advisable to have one crystal per person.” Ollivander replied.

“No, three. One for their magical donor to be recharging, one in use and one recharged ready to use as a backup.” Hermione corrected.

“Oh… oh, yes, that would be a wise idea.” Ollivander nodded.

“If we’re going to do that, does it matter if they’re magical?” Natalie asked.

“No. But would certainly make things simpler.” McGonagall answered.

“Excuse me?” Kíli held up a hand. “You mentioned brooms? Are your brooms the same as Sirius’?”

“They’re newer, but much the same, yes.” Hermione nodded.

“And the… carpets?” Fíli asked.

“They’re a carpet, a floor rug, that has been woven from thread that’s been soaked in a magical potion.” McGonagall explained.

“And how does one use them?” Thorin asked.

“Brooms? The rider uses their hands on the broom’s handle to control the movement and they push or pull on their hands to control the speed, although really experienced flyers manipulate their broom more with their magic than their hands. Carpets are both easier and harder. The primary rider sits in the middle just forward of the centre of the carpet and keeps their hand on the embroidered runes, how they hold their hand determines rise, direction and speed. We’ll teach you all to use both. ” McGonagall went on.

Thorin hummed and nodded. “That would be much appreciated, Madam.”

Sirius, Remus and Teddy re-joined them in time for lunch, the two men walking close to each other.

“Hey, pup.” Sirius leant down and hugged Harry from behind. “You still angry with me?”

Harry sighed and returned the hug. “No, Siri, I think I was over that, the moment I stopped smacking you upside the head.”

“Yeah, that hurt.” Sirius rubbed the side of his skull, at just the memory of a huge paw, and sat beside harry.

“Be glad I didn’t do like Remus and McGonagall suggested and put you over my knee and paddle your butt.” Harry snarked.

“Yes…” Sirius widened his eyes and agreed, vehemently. “So… what’s happening?”

“Well, Narcissa has tested the dwarves and Bilbo and while they’ve all got a magical core, it’s fairly weak, Bilbo’s more sensitive than the dwarves, but… well… they can raise a broom, but only Fíli, Kíli, Ori, Nori and Bilbo can actually raise them enough to ride. Hermione and Ollivander are working on some storage crystals, that can act as a magical booster-pack.”

“How’s that going to work?”

“Their blood to link it to them, our blood to allow us to pulse our magic into the crystals and charge them. They’ll wear the crystal as… we’re not sure, maybe a pendant, maybe a cuff, Hermione’s trying to make them small enough to attach to their braids as a hair ornament or as a pin on their clothes. There’re a few options. And all our stuff will have to have new runes added, to allow for the proximity of the crystals and accept them as a power supply.” Harry replied.

“Okay…” Sirius stuck his chin out and nodded his head. “So, we’re going to fly, then?”

“Yep.”

“And the dragon?”

“Still up in the air, yet. Hermione’s taken memories from Bill, Charlie, Fleur and I to collate a training memory for everyone, on our experience with dragons. But we don’t know if **_this_** dragon is magic resistant or not.” Harry grimaced.

“Ah, that could be… yeah…” Sirius’ grimace matched Harry’s.

“Yeah…” Harry sighed.

“Do we have a plan for preventing anyone getting gold-sickness?” Sirius remembered the part in the book where that happened.

“There’s a couple of options and we’re kind of thinking of using them all. A disinfectant potion released as an aerosol. A sprayed disinfectant. Overpowered cleaning charms. An overpowered _finite_. An overpowered _Tergeo_. A modified eradication charm targeted to magical infection. An overpowered _Scourgify_.” Harry replied.

“Hmm… that… that might work. Otherwise you could add a sealant, make them unable to influence people, rather than eliminating the actual curse.” Sirius mused.

“Could do that. Bill’s going to teach us how to do some basic curse-breaking and we’ll attack each coin before it leaves the mountain.” Seamus, who was sitting opposite Harry, joined the conversation.

“Harry?” Remus leant around Sirius.

“Hey, Remy. Didja have fun with the mutt?” Harry waggled his brows and both Remus and Sirius flushed.

“Be nice, Longfang.” Remus chided, ignoring his red face. “I’ve got Moody’s broom, we could alter a few brooms for the dwarves, in that style.”

“It’d be a little more dignified, for those us that don’t fancy laying on a stick or sitting on a rug.” McGonagall agreed.

“Cool. You guys get to make them up. We’re gonna teach the dwarves how to fly, maybe get a game of quidditch going… maybe not… we’re kinda competitive when it comes to quidditch. I mean we’ve got almost enough numbers for three teams, but no-one wants to give up their preferred position to fit into a team.” Harry said.

“What do you mean?”

“Draco, Charlie and I are all seekers. Fred, George and Bill are our only beaters. Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Fleur, Alice and Natalie are chasers. But at this point, Oliver is our **_only_** keeper.” Harry replied.

“No, no, pup. Frank’s a keeper, Remus and I are beaters. McGonagall was a chaser. Hell, even Snape was a beater. Oh, and Sissy was a chaser, too.” Sirius was adamant.

“Yeah, but none of them are prepared to play.” Harry pouted.

“Harry, Remus told me about the de-aging potions, how you used them to reverse him being bitten. I want to take them, too. Azkaban… it damaged me… even further than my family had.” Sirius whispered the last sentence. “If can I do that…? Remus and me… we’ll play. That’ll give you enough for at least two teams and if you choose your teams randomly each game…?”

“That’d still leave us short a keeper.” Harry muttered.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mr Potter. If it’s **_that_** important to you, I’ll take your de-aging potion and play keeper.” Ollivander snapped. He’d been listening to Harry and Draco moan about not being able to play, for days now.

Harry smiled. “Excellent. And if we can teach the dwarves to play…?” His smile became a grin. “Now, that would **_fun_**.”

“One thing at a time, Harry, let’s get the dwarves sorted before we start planning a quidditch league.” Remus laughed at his honorary godson’s joy, the boy had had far too little of that in his life, to date.

Harry was about to reply when he saw Snape and Justin’s animagi forms land and shift back into their human shapes.

“Well? What was he holding back? Anything we didn’t know about?”

“No, nothing unexpected.” Snape replied. “I would hazard that Gandalf will be headed out, alone. He knows that we will provide assistance to King Thorin and his Company, and as such his… particular skills are no longer as… urgently needed, as he’d initially supposed. Leaving him free to turn his attention elsewhere, in this case Dol Guldur to investigate the rumours of a necromancer.”

“This necromancer? Is he something we need to worry about?” Harry asked, looking between Snape and Hermione.

“Eventually we’ll have to deal with him, but that’s not as urgent as Erebor.” Hermione answered.

“Agreed.” Snape nodded. “Let us deal with one thing at a time, Potter.”

“Right.” Harry nodded and turned to Thorin. “Parvati and Padma will show you and your Company to a house. It’s fully stocked and yours for as long as you need it. Miss Sissy and Sirius will be along with a healer’s cabinet, to see to any injuries you might have. Rest up for a few days, recover and let us get ready to help you. Hermione and Ollivander are working on a way to allow you to access our magical means of transport. Remus, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie will get to work on modifying some brooms to be more comfortable for a long flight. A flight to Erebor. Dean, Seamus, Neville and Oliver are making grenades, Molotov cocktails and other explosives. Hermione, Fleur, Justin, Lee and Lavender will be seeing to supplies and accommodation to take with us. Angelina, Katie and Alicia will be teaching you, your company and Headley, how to fly a broom and a carpet, just as soon as Hermione and Ollivander are done with the crystals. The morning after the quidditch queens say you’re flight-ready, we’ll leave.”

“How long do you expect it will take to reach Erebor?” Balin asked.

“It should only take us a day to get there, once we get in the air.” Harry shrugged. “Brooms are fast, very fast. What we have, here? They’re all capable of doing more than fifty miles an hour, and some can do as much as one-hundred-and-fifty miles an hour.” Thorin and his Company were stunned at that little titbit of information. “We won’t be going that fast, but if we leave here at dawn, we should be touching down well before sunset. We’ll set up some wards, so the dragon isn’t able to detect us and depending on how we all fare, after a day in the air, we’ll rest and deal with the dragon the next day.” The young scribe raised a hand for attention. “Hold on… in the living room of your house, you’ll find a table with a pile of notebooks and pencils. Write down any questions or concerns and we’ll do our best to answer and alleviate them, but for right now, you guys have had some major shocks. Rest and think about it, take time to process it and write down anything you want to ask. Like I said, we’ll answer whatever we can.” The young dwarf’s hand fell, and he gave Harry a small smile. “Take a day or two. The orcs can’t get into the warded lands, you can sleep safely here.”

“Thank you.” Thorin stood and gave a head-and-shoulders bow. “A chance rest and recover, with access to medical assistance is very much appreciated, as is your willingness to aid us in our quest. Having spoken with Lord Black, I understand that are far from your homes with no way of returning to them. I can see that you have made this valley into a space for yourselves, but I would have you know that, should you wish to remain with us, I would have you consider Erebor your home.”

“Thank you, Thorin, the offer is much appreciated.” Harry smiled and stood to give him a bow.

After the dwarves followed the Patil twins in the direction of the second of Hogwarts’ ‘big’ houses, Sirius grabbed Harry and dragged him off towards the cottage that Remus lived in.

“You and I need to have a little chat, pup.” Sirius said, as they entered the cottage.

“What’s up, Siri?” Harry sat on a sofa and leant into his godfather’s arms.

“This, pup. Where did this come from? You’re acting like Dumbledore, giving orders and expecting people to jump when you tell them.” Sirius replied.

“I’m what Dumbledore made me into, Siri. He might have left the order in Kingsley’s hands, but everyone else he left to me. Me. Not Kingsley. Me. While I sat in an interview room waiting for my sentence to be carried out, I had access to a pensieve, I looked at lot of my memories and I realised something interesting.”

“Yes…” Sirius asked, cautiously.

“I am the leader that Dumbledore made me into but… I’m **_not_** the leader that he wanted me to be.” Harry went on. “I learnt from **_his_** mistakes. I don’t give people orders they can’t do, I match the task to the most capable person, he didn’t. I don’t give people orders and not expect them to argue if they don’t like it or believe it to be the wrong choice, he did. I don’t give people orders and expect them to keep those orders to themselves, he did. I make sure that someone other than me knows every order I’ve given, he didn’t. I don’t expect to sit back and let my people do a job that I am best suited for, he did. And most importantly… I speak to my people, I ask their opinions, I tell them why I want something done and in a lot of cases, Hermione is a perfect example, I concede to their greater knowledge, Dumbledore **_never_** did that.”

“Oh…” Sirius hadn’t expected that.

“Everyone here knows that they can argue with me, hell, McGonagall and Snape still order me around in their classrooms. It’s only when we’re discussing serious stuff, like today, that I step up. I’m their leader, their figurehead, their general, if you will. But more like a reserve leader, McGonagall is the Headmistress and it’s only when I’m needed that I come forward, the rest of the time, I’m happy to be a part of the group, and they all know that.” Harry didn’t pause but kept talking. “It’s… Think of it this way, Siri. We’re like a quidditch team, everyone knows who the captain is, everyone has the position they’re best suited for, and everyone does their part. Right?” Sirius nodded. “During practices and games, everyone looks to the captain for direction and a good captain involves his team in his game plans and the setting up of training exercises. Right?” Sirius nodded, again. “Right. But… Once the game is over, once practice is done, the captain goes back to being just another student. They might be top of the year in DADA, or the bottom, it doesn’t change what they are when on the quidditch pitch. Just like quidditch does them no good or harm in the classroom. I’m still brilliant at flying, great at DADA, mediocre at potions and pants at essays, being the leader of the D.A. isn’t going to change that and everyone knows it.”

Sirius hummed. “And what about Gandalf and Thorin?”

“What about them?” Harry tilted his head.

“You dismissed Gandalf like he wasn’t worth your time.”

“Really? I wasn’t that bad, was I?” Sirius nodded and Harry pouted. “Look, Gandalf abandons Thorin and co at this point in the stories. It has disastrous consequences for the dwarves, but him not leaving would have even worse consequences for this world. He has to go, otherwise this necromancer, Sauron, will gain a foothold here in the north that will allow the destruction of Erebor and open up access to the west. It’s only because of Gandalf that the elves step in and banish Sauron back to his southern stronghold.”

“Oh, yeah, forgot that bit.” Sirius muttered. “Fair enough. And Thorin? You sort of give the impression that you’re taking over their quest.”

“Gods, I hope not.” Harry muttered. “Was I really that…? Dumbledore-ish?”

Sirius nodded.

“Ugh. Wasn’t meaning to. Hermione says that Thorin, Fíli and Kíli all die, attempting to reclaim Erebor. I’ve seen enough deaths, Siri. If I can help them and keep them alive, I’ll feel like maybe I’ve earnt the right to stay in this world.”

“Oh, Harry…” Sirius sighed.

“I know… but that’s how I feel. I’ve no intention of taking over, more that we’re their back up, or the new addition to the team. We all have different skills and equipment. They have more experience with swords, we have more with magic. Gandalf has a different type of magic to us, his is more… people orientated, finding the right people, understanding the needs of the big picture, kinda like Dumbledore was. We’re more active, we’re also not restricted by his White Council, they are led by Saruman, and it won’t be long before he falls prey to the Sauron, if he hasn’t already. And we can’t stop him.”

“Why not?” Sirius raised a brow.

“Because his actions are the catalyst that brings the elves into the war.” Harry answered.

“But aren’t you trying to get around there even being a war?”

“I am, but Saruman is… he’s the White Council’s Wormtail.” Harry finally muttered.

“Huh.” Sirius grunted.

“Exactly. Without him to restrict them, the White Council act faster and Gandalf will take the lead. He’s forced to step up and lead instead of just ambling along and dealing with things only when they smack him in the face.” Harry grimaced.

“So, you’re really not trying to take over?”

“No! Gods, no. I don’t want to lead, I don’t, Siri. I just… everyone **_looks_** to me to lead them. The sooner I get this sorted, the sooner I can step back and hand the follow-up to Thorin and McGonagall.” Harry whined.

“So, in other words, you’re allying your people with Thorin and his people. You’ll order yours and he’ll order his and whoever is best suited to a task, will be the one to do said task, regardless of if it is one of yours or one of his?”

“Pretty much. We’ve got different knowledge to them, not better, not worse, just different. Once we hit Erebor, they’ll be the ones in advance… no, not advance… they’ll be the ones with the greater knowledge, we’ll be relegated to back up. But I refuse to let them die, when we can help them.” Harry sighed. “All they really want is a home, Siri. Hogwarts is my home, like them it was taken from me, but unlike them, there’s no chance of me ever seeing it again. If I can help them get their home back, you can bet your furry ass, that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Oh, I get it, now. Okay. I was worried for a second, there. You were barking out orders and just… I don’t want you to try and be something you’re not, pup.” Sirius rested his chin on Harry’s head. “So, what’s next for Harry? Not Harry; the captain, but **_Harry_**.”

“Um…” Harry grimaced. “Harry wants to spend some time with his godfather, get to know him, not the Azkaban fugitive. He wants to see if Draco’s right and Charlie is attempting, in a typically ham-fisted Weasley fashion, to flirt with him. He wants to work with his big brother to teach his little brothers how to fly, how to cook and work with them until they’re comfortable in using the weapons that Gringotts gave us. After that…? We’ll see. Let’s get rid of the dragon first.”

“Well, the first we can do… but we’ll have to wait until I’ve done your de-aging/re-aging thing.” Sirius nodded. “Charlie? If he hurts you, the Marauders will prank him into the next century.”

Harry snorted. “Siri, he grew up with Fred and George, he and Bill were their main teachers, I’ve listened to McGonagall, Bill and Charlie were as bad as you four and there were only **_two_** of them. I really don’t think pranking him is going to do anything other than start a prank war and seeing as we’re on the verge of another war…? It can wait.”

“Hmph…” Sirius pouted.

“Are you really okay with doing the age potions?” Harry fretted. “You don’t have to, you know that, right?”

“Whoa, pup, ease up. I’m damaged, pup, I’ve been damaged for a long time. Some of it is from Azkaban, some of it is from my family.” Sirius started, only to be cut off by Harry.

“What did they do? Do I need to resurrect them and tear them to strips?” Harry snarled.

“Maybe…” Sirius whispered.

“Tell me.” Harry held onto his godfather.

“I was born a carrier and-”

“A carrier of what?”

“A carrier… Oh, right, no magical parents and no-one to explain. Right. The magical community is small, we’re about a tenth of one percent of the world’s population. Right?” Harry nodded. “We don’t have the largest families, Weasley’s excluded. Most tend to be one or two kids. Three is considered a large family, the Weasley’s are huge. But almost a quarter of our population are either asexual or homosexual. Still with me?” Harry nodded, again. “Good. So, given that, how do we keep our population stable? There aren’t enough muggleborns entering the wizarding world to take the places of those not heterosexual. Of the overall male population, about twenty percent are carriers, capable of conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a child, but… and this was the bit that upset my parents, they are rarely the dominant member of a couple. I’m not submissive, I’m just not as dominant as Remus.” Sirius looked down at Harry, who wore a thoughtful expression. “That upset my parents, I was a Black and Blacks bowed to no-one, and here I was, I was going to be the ‘lesser’ of a couple. They didn’t like it. They commissioned at potions master from Russia to make a potion that would… eliminate… any chances of me becoming a parent, be it as a father or as a carrier.”

He paused while Harry leapt to his feet and began to rant. After a few minutes of learning that his godson had the same vindictive temper as Lily, he silenced the younger man and dragged him back to the sofa.

“That was pretty much my grandfather’s attitude when he found out.” Sirius gave Harry a small smile. “He named me as his Heir that day. My parents were furious and took it out on me, but nothing that could be seen, nothing that could be detected, magically. You know how that goes, you lived with Petunia.” Harry nodded. “Yeah, not all abuse is physical. Then I got sorted into Gryffindor…” He sighed. “That made things worse at home, stinging hexes were a… at least hourly thing, tickling charms were left just a few seconds too long, sticking charms on chairs, shrinking charms on my clothes, repelling spells so I couldn’t leave the house, that sort of thing.” He listened to Harry growl, a sign that Harry was using his Animagus form to try and remain calm. “Then I was called home for yule, the year I turned sixteen. At the dinner table, the first night home, I was presented with a betrothal contract and told to sign it. When I read that they wanted me to marry Rabastan Lestrange, I rebelled. Uncle Marius had warned me, he worked for the legal office that had drawn up the contract. I’d taken what I could from my trust vault, without alerting father, and packed all the stuff that I considered important, school stuff, marauder stuff, brooms, I took all the lose money in the house and had taken a shrinking trunk from the attic to put everything in. I exploded the dining room and literally blew the window out and ran away. Moony, Prongs and I had been secretly teaching ourselves to apparate at school and while we weren’t very good at it, I was _**very**_ angry, I apparated to the shrieking shack and stayed there for a night, before sneaking into Hogsmeade the next day and sending Prongs an owl, asking for help.” Harry smiled and poked him in the ribs.

“Yeah, yeah, lay off. James turned up, but he brought his dad with him. I told them the situation, all of it, everything… and both me and James had to hold Fleamont back, he wanted to go and curse my parents. What he did do, after we knocked him on his ass and sat on him, was to send an owl to my grandfather. The four of us went to Gringotts, grandfather invoked his Heir rights. As the heir to an Ancient and Noble House, any betrothal contract for me had to be signed by the Lord of my House, not me, not my parents. Because my parents had tried to get around that **_and_** had eliminated my childbearing capabilities, grandfather declared that I wasn’t safe with my parents and was assigning a Crisis-Regent for me. Fleamont was that Regent. I went home with them and never had to see my parents again.”

Harry looked at him. “Doesn’t stop me from wanting to resurrect and murder them for you.”

“Doesn’t stop me from wanting to let you.” Sirius replied. “I never told Remus, not about being a carrier or the potion I was tied down and forced to swallow. He knew about the abuse, how could he not, we shared a dorm for seven years, he knew how little I wanted to go home for the holidays. He knew about the damage Azkaban did, he nursed me back from it. But until this morning, he didn’t know about me being a carrier.”

“Ouch…” Harry grimaced.

“Not great, no. But not as bad as it could have been.” Sirius shrugged. “Him knowing about the abuse, helped. He understood that was the reason for me… just not talking about some things.” He sighed. “And keeping him at a distance all these years. I love him, Harry, and have done since we were twelve.” Harry beamed at him. “I want the de-aging. I want to repair the damage my family did. I want to remove the last taint of my parents’ care from my body, so I can close the memories of the same incidents away in the depths of my mind and never have to think on them again. I want to repair the damage that Azkaban did. I want to be the best that I can be... For you, for me, for him and for any children that I might have.” Sirius told Harry earnestly.


	20. Chapter 20

_“I want the de-aging. I want to repair the damage my family did. I want to remove the last taint of my parents’ care from my body, so I can close the memories of the same incidents away in the depths of my mind and never have to think on them again. I want to repair the damage that Azkaban did. I want to be the best that I can be, for me, for him, for you.” Sirius told Harry earnestly._

It took three days for Hermione and Ollivander to have the booster-crystals ready for the wizards to charge. Then there was the issue of who to pair with who? And that, had Harry standing outside the door to the house that Thorin and his Company were using, shortly after lunch.

“Thorin?” He knocked on the open door but didn’t enter. “Can I have a word? We’re at the stage of needing to pair one of my people with one of yours, and bluntly? I don’t know your people well enough to judge.” He went on when Thorin came to the door.

“Hmm…” Thorin mused. “In that case it might be wise to have Dwalin join us, he knows the measure of my Company, the most.”

“Sure.”

“One moment.” Thorin held up a hand, then he leant backwards and yelled. “Dwalin! [Dê!](To%20me!)” From somewhere in the house came a thumping of feet and within seconds three people thundered down the hall.

“You yelled, Uncle.” Kíli grinned.

“Not for you, I didn’t.” Thorin huffed. “Go back to Balin and your studies.”

“Oh, but-” Kíli pouted

“Go.” Thorin pointed back into the house. “Dwalin, with me.” The two young princes pouted and stomped back into the house.

“Right ye are.” Dwalin grunted.

“The pavilion, Master Harry?” Thorin asked.

“No, not this time. I need a bit of space, let’s go down to the creek.” Harry suggested.

“As you wish.” Thorin nodded and stepped out of the house. Harry led the two dwarves down to the creek and with a swish of his wand transfigured three rocks onto neat stone chairs. “What can we do for you?”

“Hermione and Ollivander have some crystals ready to try, but that means that we have to pair one of my people with one of yours.” Harry replied.

“Why is that?” Thorin asked, a frown on his face.

“Your dwarves have a magical core, but it’s not as pronounced as ours, Miss Sissy believes that it’s because you didn’t have contact with magic while it was developing and as a result, its growth was… stunted. She and Severus are working on a potion that may correct that, but it could take them months to get it ready for testing. In the meantime, Hermione and Ollivander have created a crystal that will act like a booster. The downside is that it requires someone to charge them.”

“I don’t understand. Charge them?”

“Ah, right, um…?” Harry wondered how to describe the- “Oh. Consider them like… a bucket that holds magic. Your people can fill it, but it will take them months. On the other hand, it will take one of my people a few minutes. These ‘buckets’ provide the fuel for the brooms and other magical devices.”

“Ah…” Thorin nodded.

“Yes, but we’ll get a better result if we can team one of my people with one of yours. As an example… young Ori? He’s shy and a little retiring. Pairing him with Sirius or one of the twins, is a disaster for Ori.”

“Ah…” Thorin nodded again.

“But Fíli and Kíli? They’d work well with the twins, you and I might dread what they get up to, but they’d still work well, they have similar personalities.” Harry went on.

“I see. So, what do you need from me?”

“Because it’s your people we need to match, if you and Dwalin could describe each of your people and their personalities and abilities, I’ll try and find a match in one of mine. Then we can start testing the crystals and charging them.”

“And then?” Dwalin asked.

“And then we teach you to fly. Once transport is sorted out, Thorin and I will meet and discuss what he needs us to do next. Provide accommodation. Set wards. Provide explosives. I’m out of my depth when it comes to Kings and what they need to reclaim a kingdom, you’re going to have to tell me. But the one thing I do know is that we have to get you there first.” Harry told them earnestly.

“And your brooms can get us there in a day?” Thorin asked.

“Yes. A day, two at the outside. Depends on the route and how many stops we make.” Harry answered.

“Well, then, we’d best get our people paired up.” Thorin nodded. “Dwalin, give master Harry a breakdown of each person’s capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and personality.”

“You and the boys, too?” The partially bald guard asked.

“Yes, all of us. Hold nothing back.” Thorin ordered.

“Right then, let’s start with him.” Dwalin jerked a thumb in Thorin’s direction.

For the next hour and a half, Dwalin and Harry debated the merits of each pairing, slowly hammering out a pairing that both sides felt would work.

“Read ‘em back to me, lad.” Dwalin requested.

“Got it. Let’s see… Bilbo and Severus. Fíli and Fred. Kíli and George. Ori and Neville. Dori and Oliver. Nori and Charlie. Gloín and Sirius. Oín and Remus. Bofur and Seamus. Bifur and Dean. Bombur and Justin. Balin and Draco. Dwalin and Bill. Thorin and Harry.”

Dwalin turned to Thorin and raised an eyebrow. “Well? What do yer reckon?”

“You’re the one that’s trained them, watched them work. If you’re happy with the pairings, Dwalin, I shan’t interfere.” Thorin held up a hand in denial.

“I’m happy with ‘em.” Dwalin drawled.

“Same here.” Harry agreed.

“Then the pairings stand as you read them.” Thorin nodded.

“Excellent. In that case, we can start getting crystals bonded to a dwarf and their wizard partner and charged. We should be able to start you on brooms in the morning. The quidditch queens will take you into the Nest and-”

“Why them?” Thorin asked, curiously. “Why not you? Or Sirius? Why the ladies?”

“Because they’re chasers, the most flexible flyers on a quidditch team. The most agile, the most manoeuvrable.” Harry answered.

“We’ve yet to see this… quidditch.” Thorin said.

“I know, and that’s partially deliberate.” Harry allowed. “We don’t want to scare you off just yet. We tend to get a little… competitive when quidditch is involved. We felt that if you’d have a lesson or two, we could then show you, this is where all of us started and this is what you can achieve if you want to. Not everyone does. Hermione is a prime example, she’s an excellent flyer, but gets no pleasure from it. Neither does Neville. But McGonagall and Ollivander will be finished with their de-aging in a few hours and I can pretty much guarantee that McGonagall will be back on a broom as soon as she’s allowed. She’s even more quidditch-obsessed than we are.” Harry laughed.

“And you think we can start in the morning?” Dwalin asked.

“If we can get the crystals bonded this afternoon, yes.” Harry nodded.

After an early breakfast, Katie and Angelina greeted the dwarves as they approached the pavilion and led them through the enlarged entrance into the Nest’s pocket-space. The dwarves twisted their heads around and gaped at the space, you could clearly see the ‘walls’ and ‘ceiling’ of the space, as they walked across an empty field to a huge walled structure.

“Morning.” Alicia stood beside Bilbo and Headley at the entrance to the structure and bounced on her feet.

“Good morning, Lady Alicia.” Thorin nodded to her.

“Oh, now, as lovely as that sounds, there’s no formality on the quidditch pitch. Out here, I’m Lish, and my fellow chasers are Angie and Katie.” Alicia beamed at them, taking any sting from her words. “We’re going to teach you to _**fly**_.” The last word was said passionately, with the reverence usually reserved for something of exquisite beauty.

“Come on, guys, let’s get you started.” Angelina led them through the entrance, down a tunnel and out into a massive amphitheatre-like space. “Over here.” Across the grounds to a group of brooms laying on the ground.

“So, we’re going to start you off slow.” Katie told them and began to describe the process of raising a broom.

Up in the stands, Harry sat with Hermione and Snape.

“You really think this will work, Potter?” Snape asked.

“Give them a chance, S-Severus.” Harry stumbled over calling Snape by his first name. “Oh, lord.” Harry tried not to laugh at the look of almost-horror-almost-rapture on Oín and Dori’s faces.

“You paired Fred and George with Fíli and Kíli, didn’t you?” Hermione sighed, watching the two young dwarves, as they raced around the pitch and tumbled from their broom every time they yanked on their brooms’ shafts, cackling all the time.

“Yep.” Harry gave up any pretence of not laughing, when Thorin and Dwalin both started chasing Fíli and Kíli, yelling at them to behave.

Snape buried his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking, at the expression of distaste that Balin and Gloín wore as they sedately circled the pitch at exactly six foot above the ground.

“Alright, everybody in.” Katie called and a reluctant Fíli and Kíli settled to the ground only to be collared by Thorin and Dwalin. “That can wait, chastise them later, fly now.” She pulled Dwalin and Thorin to a halt. “Next we’re going to try some carpets.”

“Some of you might find them to be more your thing.” Alicia flicked her wand and a caravan of carpets floated out of the entrance tunnel and across the pitch, to settle beside her. “So, first. Where to sit and how to operate a carpet. Angie is going to demonstrate for you, but she’s going to keep the carpet at one foot above the ground and at walking speed, just so that you can watch what she does. Angie?”

The next half hour was just as entertaining for the trio in the stands, as the last hour had been.

Bombur wore an expression of bliss as he floated along, happily doing whatever he was told. Fíli and Kíli, on the other hand, pouted and moaned at having to go so slow. Thorin spent most of his time cutting in front of his nephews and forcing them to slow down. Balin, Gloín, Oín and Dori looked no happier on a carpet than they had on a broom, while most of the other dwarves didn’t seem overly impressed.

“Everybody in!” Angelina called and everyone but Bombur seemed happy to abandon the carpets and gather near the girls. “Last on the list of flying things that we’re going to subject you to, are… the modified brooms that Remus and the Weasleys have been working on.”

Katie flicked her wand and summoned a flight of one after one after one of odd-looking brooms. Each broom had a wide saddle-like seat on it, with a tall backrest, that if the dwarves knew what an ergonomic office chair was, they’d recognise as having been the backrest’s inspiration. Then there were two extensions that fell from the front of the broom that ended in stirrup-like footrests. And finally, there were two odd looking brackets, that at first, the dwarves assumed to be armrests, but once Alicia mounted the odd contraption, they realised that the brackets were the means to control the broom.

“As you can see, these are slightly different. Bombur, we know you like the carpets, but you still have to be able to ride a broom. You might not want to, you might never need to again, but if you don’t know how? Guaranteed, that’s when you’re going to need to it.” Katie lectured. “First up, Dori and Gloín. Mount up and try it. Alicia will fly between you, to give you a hand. Bombur and Oín, you’re next. Angie will fly with you.”

Up in the stands, Hermione was making notes. “I think we’ve got ideas of who’s going to prefer which broom.” She said.

“Except from Bombur.” Harry agreed. “I think we can safely say that he’s going to prefer a carpet.”

“Indeed, but I’m hesitant about Balin, Dori, Oín and Gloín. They look no more comfortable on a modified broom, than an unmodified one.” Snape added.

“Or the carpets.” Hermione sighed.

“Let me have a chat with Remus and the twins, they might have a few ideas.” Harry screwed his nose in thought.

Two mornings later and the dwarves were just finishing off their latest flying session, when a whooping yell came from the pitch’s entrance tunnel, closely followed by an indignant squall of noise. This caused the dwarves, Bilbo, Headley and the girls to spin to face the tunnel.

What emerged from the tunnel had Harry and Hermione laughing and Snape covering his eyes.

An elegant rollback loveseat whisked along just below the ceiling of the tunnel, on one side there was the cross-legged Sirius Black, grinned delightedly as the small sofa blazed along, on the other side was the obvious reason for the squalling sound. A very disapproving Teddy held tightly in his father’s arms.

When Harry saw the tiny infant, he started to growl, but waited until Sirius had brought the sofa to a halt beside Katie.

“Try these out. They’re-”

 _ **“Sirius Orion Black!”**_ Harry’s voice was amplified by his wand, but it still was low and sounded very much of his panther’s growl.

Down on the pitch, Teddy stopped screaming and Sirius head jerked in Harry’s direction and an expression of absolute horror blossomed on his face. “No… No… He _**didn’t**_ …?” He whispered.

“It appears he _**did**_.” Remus’ expression was nearly as bad.

“He did what?” Katie asked.

“Who did what?” Angelina asked.

“Harry inherited his mother’s temper.” Remus grimaced.

“Ah…” Headley grimaced, too. “Good luck with that. Harry’s temper is… Yeah, good luck…” He skittered around to hide behind Katie.

“Uh, pup…?” Sirius whined.

“Get your mangy, flea-ridden _**ass**_ up here, Black.” Harry snarled and pointed to a space beside himself.

Sirius’ eyes widened and twisted on the spot and apparated away.

“Coward.” Remus muttered.

Harry snarled and he, too, vanished from the stands.

“Let’s leave Harry and Sirius to sort themselves out.” Angelina shook her head. “Tell me about this, Remus.” She pointed at the loveseat.

“We were watching yesterday.” Remus answered. “We weren’t sure if it was the uncomfortable bit or the undignified bit, but it’s clear that Balin, Dori, Oín and Gloín are not happy on either type of brooms or the carpet, so we spent the afternoon, working out whether we could modify a broom, to be both comfortable and elegant. This is, roughly, the result.”

“And what have you done?” Alicia asked.

Remus raised his hand and the loveseat lifted into the air and hovered with the feet on a level with his shoulder. “We asked Justin for a sofa from the commissary and modified it using Sirius’ old broom. We didn’t want to destroy new a broom if it didn’t work. We added a few twigs to the broom to bulk it up and then added the modified steering mechanism, before used a separating charm to split the broom. Not completely, what we did was… make a slice a few inches from either end, down the centre of the broom, then encouraged it to form a squarish shape and used a sticking charm to secure it to the base frame of the loveseat. Then we elongated the steering handles so they both come out the front here, a curved front to have somewhere to rest feet or a bag… and there you have it.” Remus smiled. “This isn’t the finished product, though, this is only a testing model. But if the dwarves like it, Justin and McGonagall said we can personalise seats for the dwarves.”

“But it works?” Alicia asked.

“You saw it, for yourselves.” Remus gestured to the tunnel and shifted a now sleepy Teddy to his other arm.

“How will this differ from the completed model?” Katie asked.

“Well, the big difference will be that in the personalised models, we’ll be using two brooms that have been tethered together, but only the primary broom will have the modified steering. And the brooms will be physically attached to whatever seat is used, rather than a sticking charm. The idea being that if not needed for transport, the brooms can be removed and be used as standard brooms.”

“And they'll use the same steering as the modified brooms?” Katie asked.

“They will.” Remus nodded.

“Alright, we’ll take it from here. You go and see to Harry and Sirius.” Angelina jerked her thumb in the direction of the tunnel.

“Yeah, no, not happening. I’ll sit with Hermione and Snape. Sirius is on his own.” Remus grimaced.

“Got it.” Alicia nodded and waved him away. “Right, let’s try this.” She sat on the seat and wiggled until she was comfortable, let her hands fall to the extended handles and the seat lifted into the air. And few simple manoeuvres and she let it settle back to the ground beside Katie. “Well, they work. Hardly the most… versatile of flying things, but it’ll do the job.” She told the other two girls.

“Alright.” Angelina nodded. “Balin, you first. Just try the standard course, that should be enough to let us know if one of these is more suitable for you than a broom or carpet.”

“Yes, of course, Miss Angie.” The older dwarf refused to be so crass as to address a young lady without a title. He settled himself onto the sofa and let his hand take hold of the controls. Three minutes later, he let the sofa settle to the ground, a beaming smile on his face. “I like this. For me, this is far more acceptable than a broom or Bombur’s choice of carpet.”

“Yes.” Angelina agreed. “That’s very clear. We still need you to finish the broom training, but like with Bombur, you’ll only have to pass the basics.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Balin muttered.

“Gloín, you’re up next.” Katie called and the redheaded axeman came forward.

When he landed, he nodded and joined Balin. “Yes, much better.” Was all he said.

Oín was next and he flitted around the pitch, letting the seat rise and fall in odd places. He said nothing but nodded to Katie when he landed and stepped away from the seat.

“Dori.” Katie called.

Dori wore an expression of distrust for the first few seconds, but quickly his smile grew, and he relaxed enough to settle back into the seat, still going through Alicia’s course. “Oh, this is very nice, a little on the large side for me, but very nice, indeed.” He smiled at Katie as he disembarked.

One by one, all the dwarves tried the flying sofa. Each of them wore differing expressions, some of contemplation, some of dislike, some of just plan indifference.

It was as Thorin, who was last to go, was trialling the sofa that Harry returned.

“Did you catch him?” Remus asked.

“I did.” Harry smirked.

“What did you do to him, Harry?” Hermione sighed.

“He's stuck as Padfoot, with a pink French poodle haircut, for the next hour.” Harry glanced sideways at Hermione, but predominantly kept his attention on the pitch. “What’s the verdict?”

“The sofa is good.” Hermione answered. “Personalising it will make it even better. Bilbo, Dori, Balin, Oín, Gloín and Thorin like them, but Thorin and Bilbo are still leaning towards the modified broom as their preferred option. Bombur, as we already said, prefers the carpet. Bifur prefers the modified broom but is quite comfortable with either the sofa or the carpet. The rest are one step above useless on the sofas and tend to push the carpet a little too hard.”

“Agreed.” Snape nodded. “But it might be an idea to keep Bifur as a possibility for a second carpet.”

“Can’t hurt.” Harry nodded. “Alright. I’ll go and have a chat with Thorin about it, see what he thinks, they're his people, I don’t want to step on his toes.”

“Always a good idea to have.” Remus nodded.

“How did Headley go?” Harry was conflicted about Headley. On one hand, Dudley had been his greatest tormentor during his youth, on the other Headley wasn’t Dudley anymore.

“Good, really good. He’s going to make an excellent keeper as he matures.” Remus answered.

“He was looking up here for you, seemed a little disappointed that you weren’t here.” Snape added.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about him, I need to work out if he’s Dudley or Headley.” Harry sighed.

“Harry, he’s Headley now, not Dudley, not anymore. Dudley was your cousin, a muggle and a bully. Headley is your brother, he’s a wizard and a good kid.” Hermione clarified.

“So, you think I need to… what…? Forget he was ever Dudley?”

“Yes, he’s not Dudley anymore.” Hermione nodded. “Judge him on what he does as Headley, not on what he did as someone he's not, anymore.”

“Why don’t you take him for the afternoon? Visit the hippogriffs, play with the foals for a while.” Snape suggested.

“Hmm… Yeah, I can do that.” Harry gave them a smile and summoned a broom, mounted up and flew down onto the pitch. “Hey, Headley? Wanna come see the Buckbeak’s foals?”

Headley grinned and bounded over to Harry. “Yes, please!”


	21. Chapter 21

_“Harry, he’s Headley now, not Dudley, not anymore. Dudley was a muggle, your cousin and a bully. Headley is your brother, he’s a wizard and a good kid.” Hermione clarified._

_“So, you think I need to… what…? Forget he was ever Dudley?”_

_“Yes, he’s not Dudley anymore.” Hermione nodded._

_“Why don’t you take him for the afternoon? Visit the hippogriffs, play with the foals for a while.” Snape suggested._

_“Hmm… Yeah, I can do that.” Harry gave them a smile and summoned a broom, mounted up and flew down onto the pitch. “Hey, Headley? Wanna come see the Buckbeak’s foals?”_

_Headley grinned and bounded over to Harry. “Yes, please!”_

“Good afternoon, Miss Hermione, Master Harry.” Thorin nodded regally while Bilbo smiled gently at the two young magical people.

“Afternoon, Thorin.” Harry gave him a tired smile. “Bilbo.”

“Good afternoon.” Bilbo and Hermione spoke at almost the same time.

“You look exhausted, Harry.” Bilbo added.

“Yeah, I feel it, too.” Harry sighed.

“Should we meet at a later time, then?” Thorin asked.

“No, it won’t make a difference. Frank’s putting me through a version of the Gauntlet and-”

“Gauntlet?” Thorin raised a brow in question.

“Ah… the Gauntlet is… it’s a type of test that our people use to test those that are in training to join our law enforcement troops.” Harry said.

“It’s quite involved and tests each participant physically as well as magically.” Hermione went on. “I spoke to the Head of the DMLE, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and he provided me a version of it to bring with us. But… unbeknownst to me, the head of the Unspeakables, the Magical Research Department, also sent along the more advanced versions. He was aware that Frank and Alice were coming and knew that we’d want to train ourselves.”

“We just didn’t expect Frank to be as… zealous as he’s turned out to be.” Harry sighed.

“He plans of putting us through the Gauntlet as often as we can physically cope with. The idea being that our bodies will adapt to the pressure and no longer be as stressed upon completion.” Hermione added.

“Ah… Trialling… I hesitate to mention this, but if I don’t, then Dwalin will. He wants to test each of you with the weapons you have.” Thorin warned.

“Send him to speak to Frank.” Harry offered. “I’m sure the two of them can work out a schedule to test us.”

“I shall do so. You wished to speak to Master Baggins and I?” Thorin replied.

“Yes, we have an issue that you two need to be aware of.” Hermione started.

“Just us two?” Bilbo asked.

“Maybe, maybe not. But it will be up to you to decide if others need to know and if so, who that should be.” Harry answered.

“Very well, continue.” Thorin gestured in a ‘go on’ motion.

“It concerns what Bilbo picked up in the mountain.” Harry began.

“What?” Bilbo startled, his hand falling to his pocket.

“Yes, that.” Harry nodded. “It’s bad, Bilbo, very bad. It will try and twist your mind, twist your emotions, make you doubt your friends, make you judge them, make you doubt yourself.”

“How do you know?” Bilbo frowned.

“Hermione and I? We’ve been there, and between us? We were personally involved in the destruction of four items that worked the same as what you carry.” Harry answered bluntly. “One caused an innocent young girl to kill dozens of animals and release a particularly dangerous snake that could have killed the entire population of our world just by looking at them. One twisted the minds of myself, Hermione and our best friend, Ron, to the point that we nearly raised our wands at each other and did go our separate ways. Another caused us to act recklessly and destroy a number of buildings. And the last nearly destroyed our school, with us still in it.”

“Oh…” Bilbo was horrified. “What…? What should I do with it? If it’s that bad, I can’t just give it to someone else, can I?”

“No, but we can block it, neutralise it, make it unusable.” Hermione answered.

“You’ll help me?”

“Of course, we will.” Hermione nodded.

“Or do you wish to have this thing for yourselves?” Thorin asked.

 ** _“No!”_** Hermione squawked. “Definitely not. And better if we never handle the damned thing. Certainly not before it’s blocked, anyway.”

“My apologies.” Thorin nodded a bow. “I was concerned that given your description of the items while they had been in your control, that perhaps the one that Master Baggins holds may have been affecting your judgement.”

“No, no apologies necessary, You Majesty.” Hermione shook her head. “You were worried, and you spoke out of concern.”

“Please, Thorin, don’t hesitate to speak if we do something that you don’t understand, don’t like, don’t approve of or think could be done in a better or more efficient way.” Harry added. “We want to help, but we aren’t omnipotent, particularly when it comes to this world. Our information is limited, if people don’t tell us what they need, we’re running blind.”

“Ah. I had wondered.” Thorin mused.

“Look we speak a great game, we’ve had to, to get people to act.” Harry leant forward and poke earnestly. “But here? It’s different here. This is your place, not ours, you know the customs, the traditions, the lay of the land, not us. We’ll help you to the best of our ability, Thorin, but we’re your back up. Sure, there are things that we’re far better at than you, but on the other hand, when it comes to physical warfare, you’re the expert and we’re not even **_novices_** , we’re **_infants_**.” The last few words came out as whines.

“Ah…” Thorin breathed out. “I understand. Very well. Master Baggins? What do you intend to do with whatever it is he carries?”

“We need to render it unusable.” Hermione replied. “But… it’s semi-sentient. Our best theory is to encase it, so that it can’t be worn as its maker intended.”

“And?”

“I have a pouch, here, for Mr Baggins, it’s-”

“Please, call me Bilbo, Miss Hermione.” Bilbo interrupted. The other three looked at him. “All of you, please. Master Bilbo, Master Baggins, Mr Bilbo, Mr Baggins… do we really need to be so formal? Aren’t we working together towards set goals? Reclaim Erebor? Defeat the dragon? Build new homes? Any of that sound familiar?”

Thorin snorted and Harry laughed, while Hermione huffed.

“Very well… Bilbo.” Thorin nodded. “Hermione?” He deliberately left off any titles as he addressed her.

“I’ve a pair of pouches, here, for… Bilbo.” She nodded at the hobbit. “One’s got an undetectable extension charm on it, so it can carry a lot of stuff. Sirius reminded me about them and suggested that each of us have one. This is Bilbo’s. I’d like to tie it to his magical signature, that way no-one can access its contents without he opens the pouch.”

“And the… thing, itself?”

“Encase it. In lead, in quartz, in porcelain, in glass or paper.” Hermione replied. “Something that is extremely non-conductive, magically. Only problem is… I don’t know what type of magic it uses. At a best guess? Severus, Remus and I figure that we should use multiple layers. The more physically brittle layers closer to it and the more robust layers further out.”

“Hmm… Having little to no magical knowledge, other than what you and yours have expressed, I would suggest that… Bilbo and I leave that to your discretion.” Thorin said.

“We want to use existing materials, not conjured as we may have to wait for some time before we are in a position to deal with the item in question. We can take a sample of each substance and sort of ‘mould’ it around the item, moulding will not affect the base material, just its external shape.” Hermione lectured. “Porcelain followed by glass, then quartz and lead, then wrap it in paper. We may look at adding other layers, later, it depends on resistance. Ours and its.”

“Very well.” Thorin sat back in his seat. “Consider me an observer, only. From here, you need to negotiate with… Bilbo.” For some reason, Thorin had difficulty addressing Bilbo be his given name.

“Bilbo?” Hermione turned to the hobbit. “Will you work with us? Let us seal it, so it can’t be used?”

Thorin absently noted that no-one had actually said what the item was.

Bilbo nodded. “I will.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his hand. Laying it on the table in front of him, he opened his hand and let its contents settle onto the table.

Thunk.

Thorin’s eyes focused on the small band of gold and alarm filled him. “Durin help us…” He whispered. “Is that…?”

“Yes, we believe it is.” Hermione replied, without actually answering.

“Mahal…” He moaned.

“Now, now, Thorin, give us a chance. We have a plan to render it mute, then we can work towards Erebor and the dragon, and let that,” Hermione nodded towards the Ring on the table, “sit where no-one but Bilbo can access it and he won’t be able to use it, as we’ll have it encased in so many layers that he won’t even be able to touch it.”

Thorin just sat there, his head in his hands, moaning ‘no’ over and over.

Bilbo looked from Thorin to Harry to Hermione. “Do I even want to know?” He asked.

“No, you do not.” Thorin snapped. “Do not tell him, until it is encased in at least two layers.”

“I have to agree with Thorin.” Harry said.

“Do it.” Bilbo leant away from the table. If it was that bad, he wanted it away from him.

“Give me a few moments. Harry? You’re the least likely to be susceptible, you get to guard it. Leave it on the table and don’t let anyone touch it.” Hermione stood, turned from the table and walked to a window, opening it, she waved and after a few seconds, a dark nearly black barn owl flew in through the open window and as it passed Hermione, it transformed from an owl into a man. “Thank you for coming, Severus.”

“Not at all, Miss Granger.” Severus Snape intoned in his typical formal manner and followed Hermione back to the table.

“Severus is going to work with Harry and I to do this.” Hermione explained to Thorin and Bilbo. And Harry. “Harry is going to shield us, he’s the most powerful of us all and the one that’s most resistant to dark magics. Severus will hold the various components in a semi-liquid form, while I levitate the item, at which point Severus will force the semi-liquid to envelope the item, then he will allow the semi-liquid to revert back to its natural structure.”

“But with the… item… inside it?” Bilbo asked, having caught the fact that Hermione wasn’t naming the item.

“Precisely.” Hermione nodded.

An hour and a half later, the five sat around the table looking at what appeared to be a small lead cannonball.

“I hope, Miss Granger, that this is something we will not be repeating in the near future?” Snape’s silky voice was tired and quiet.

“I certainly hope **_not_** , Professor.” Hermione agreed.

Harry barely had the energy to nod and grunt his agreement.

“That was… That was astounding…” Thorin declared, his face showing his approval.

“It was…” Bilbo nodded, his eyes still wide from what he’d just seen.

“It was a little more… aggressive… than I expected.” Hermione admitted.

“But you still did it.” Bilbo whispered.

“We did.” Snape agreed. “I never thought I would be grateful that Potter’s as stubborn as he is. But… I am.” Snape turned to Harry. “Well done. That could have been quite nasty, if not for that second shield. What was it?”

“[ _Protego horribilis_](strongest%20individual%20shield%20charm) in parseltongue.” Harry muttered, just loud enough to hear.

“Ah. A shield charm, cast in a non-human language, with a custom wand, by a Gryffindor. That would definitely make a dark lord shudder.” The older wizard nodded.

“Yep. Snakeface might have though twice about facing me, if he’d known I had started to play with casting in parseltongue.” Harry agreed.

“Yes… he likely would have.” Snape dragged himself to his feet. “I shall leave you now, I am in need of rest and replenishment. I would suggest that you two not lengthen your own recovery by delaying.”

“We shan’t.” Hermione nodded. “Just a short explanation for Bilbo and we’re done. Once you leave, Miss Sissy, Draco, Minerva and Headley will be along to… monitor our recovery.”

“Excellent. Good afternoon, Miss Granger, gentlemen.” Snape bowed to them all and walked from the room, slowly it might be said, but calmly and under his own steam.

“An explanation?” Bilbo asked.

“An explanation.” Hermione nodded.

Bilbo sighed and nodded. “Explain away.”

“This…” she nodded to the cannonball-like orb, “was the most dangerous thing that **_you_** might have ever faced.”

“More dangerous than a dragon?” Bilbo gulped.

“Oh, far more dangerous. Think, Bilbo, think. It’s a ring. What important or dangerous rings do you know of?” Hermione sighed.

Bilbo frowned, tilting his head in thought. It took maybe a minute and a half, but Bilbo’s eyes widened alarmingly, and he pushed back from the table in a reflex action, causing Thorin to grab at the hobbit’s chair as it skidded away from the table.

 ** _“It’s THAT ring?!”_** Bilbo screeched.

“It’s that ring.” Hermione nodded.

“Ooh… I feel ill…” Bilbo wobbled on his feet.

“Now, Master Baggins…” Thorin said sharply. “No more fainting. You’ve faced orcs and wargs and both have fallen under your blade. Surely, a ring that can no longer influence you, is no cause for fainting.”

Bilbo swung to face Thorin and his eyes narrowed. “You try carrying that blasted thing, naked of any protections, in your pocket, and then tell me, ‘it’s no cause for fainting’, you… you… dwarf!” Bilbo snarled.

Thorin’s eye widened and he leant back a little. “Ah, no, thank you but no, Master Baggins, I don’t believe that would be wise.”

“Then I suggest you keep your opinions on the matter, to yourself, Master Oakenshield.” Bilbo turned back to Hermione. “What do you plan to do with it now?”

Hermione pulled out a small pouch and opened it just wide enough to push the metal orb into the pouch. Then she pushed the pouch towards Bilbo. His eyes widened and he pushed it back towards Hermione.

“Oh, no! I want nothing to do with that… **_thing_**.” He sneered.

“Exactly.” Hermione nodded. “This pouch can hold the ring. Nothing else just the ring. And if you accept, we will tie it to both Harry’s and my magical signatures, meaning that only together can we open it. Then, we seal that pouch and place it inside the extended pouch that’s tied to your magical signature. That stops Harry or I from accessing it.”

“Then what?” Bilbo asked.

“Then, nothing. You can’t open the inner pouch and neither Harry nor I can get to it, because of the outer pouch being tied to you.” Hermione said. “You ignore it, forget it’s there. Leave in the bottom of the extended pouch, put all your stuff in on top of it. Forget it’s there.”

“We could add a notice-me-not.” Harry offered.

“Hmm… maybe not a notice-me-not, maybe a disillusionment charm…” Hermione mused.

“Why not both?” Thorin asked.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, silently asking the same question.

“What about a… repelling charm, but specifically targeted to Bilbo?” Harry asked. “Or put a pocket in the main pouch and put all these on it? Bilbo knows it’s there but can’t access it.”

“Or a modified memory charm. Bilbo would know there’s a pocket there, but he’ll think it’s empty or we could attach-”

 ** _“Oh, oh!_** A pocket, Bilbo knows it’s there, but the ‘Bilbo’ repelling charm is **_only_** active if Bilbo opens the pocket. If one of us were to be present we could dismiss the charm and Bilbo could remove the ring(?)… ball(?)… **_thing_**.” Harry crowed tiredly.

“Oh, oh yes, Harry, that’s perfect. But I’d have to… rework the pouch.” Hermione smiled at him.

“Nah. Just make a new one, give that one to someone else.” Harry disagreed.

Hermione blinked. “That would work.”

“Always the tone of surprise.” Harry snarked, then fell silent.

“Yeah…” Hermione whispered. “I miss him, too.”

“Not enough to give up Draco.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, not enough to do that.” Hermione nodded.

“I shall be thankful of that, then, shall I?” Draco said as he came in the door.

“I think that’s a given.” Minerva said as she followed him.

“So… when are you two going to make it official and give me some cousins?” Headley asked from the doorway.

Draco and Hermione looked at each other and smirked, matching smirks.

“Oh, crap…” Harry whispered. “I remember that look. Headley, you had to ask, didn’t you? You just had to ask.” The last two sentences were whined.

“Oh, hush you. And we’re getting married on Saturday.” Hermione smacked at Harry’s shoulder.

“Saturday?” Harry sat up straight. “You can’t. He didn’t ask permission.” He objected.

“Yes, I did. I just didn’t ask you, Potter. Bill brought Hermione and Luna into his family and it was to him that I went.” Draco corrected.

“Oh… oh, okay…” Harry slumped back in his seat. “That’s okay, then…”

“Merlin save us from overprotective Potters.” Minerva huffed. “Your father was much the same, cursed poor Frank to be Slytherin green for a week when he failed to notify James that he and Alice had eloped and were pregnant. Now, come on, Potter. Bed. Severus said that you almost overextended yourself.” She dragged an objecting Harry to his feet and Headley came forward and slid himself under Harry’s other arm. Between the witch and the young wizard, they gently bullied Harry to his feet, out of the room, down the hallway and into a bedroom. “You can sleep here, for now.”

“Ta… Talk to Hermione about Bilbo’s pouch.” Harry muttered as he snuggled down into the fluffy bedding.

“Sleep.” Headley tucked the covers over Harry’s shoulders. “Let us deal with it.”

“…hmm… ‘kay… nigh’…” And Harry was gone, dreams of flying with Buckbeak and Charlie filling his mind.

Dori and Ori clung to Nori, their faces almost panicked with fear.

“It’s alright, just watch, Fred and George won’t let the bludgers near the girls, just watch.” Harry patted them on the shoulders, from his seat behind them. “There, see? Told ya.” He snorted. “That’s what beaters are all about.” Dwalin squawked and ducked his head. “Yeah, ya gotta watch out. Quidditch can be a bit interactive.” He laughed as Natalie whizzed by, just a foot above their heads. “Keep an eye on Draco and Charlie, too. Neither of them have spotted the snitch, yet.”

“And you have?” Gloín retorted.

“Yeah, 'o course.” Harry replied. “About two minutes ago. I’m just waiting for one of them to see it. Or… for it to swing around passed here, if I grab it, the game’s still over, but neither team wins. No points for that.”

Balin leant around a Bofur that winced as Sirius belted the bludger away from Angelina. “How are the points decided? You said the teams are selected randomly. How do you determine points?”

“Oh, we’re not, not yet anyway.” Harry answered. “This is only a fun match. We’re still hammering out the details, but we’re eventually going to have three teams. The problem is… working out who’s going to be on what team? Most of us were Gryffindors and a good chunk of us either played together or are family. Dividing us up? That’s… not easy. Oh, yeah, sure, we know that some people will be chosen together, splitting them up just won’t work. Fred and George? Splitting them is useless, they can’t work separately. Katie, Alicia and Angelina are pretty much the same. It’s just the rest that’s… causing a headache.”

“I see…” Balin paused as Draco did a sudden dive and looped back in the opposite direction, causing Charlie to swear and lean into a sharp turn to his left.

A heart-stopping few minutes as Draco and Charlie fought for position in the race to be first to catch the snitch, had the dwarves on the edge of their seats. At the same time, Natalie, Minerva and Fleur were running Katie, Alicia and Angelina from one end of the pitch to the other.

“Are all your games like this?” Kíli asked from the other side of Thorin.

“Nah, this is only a fun match.” Harry repeated. “Not as competitive as we usually get, but Natalie is only a fourth year up against adults that have worked together for years. Plus, Sirius and Remus haven't played for nearly twenty years. We didn’t want to break them before they got started.”

“ ** _Not_** as competitive?” Bilbo shuddered.

“Oh, no. No way near it.” Harry laughed. “Draco wants me to challenge Charlie to a seeker duel. Draco and I are fairly evenly matched, depends on the day. But Charlie? I’ve been listening to Fred, George, Ron and Ginny go on about Charlie being a brilliant seeker, for years. It’s time we found out just how good he is.”

“Seeker duels are the highest level of competitive, that quidditch reaches.” Hermione huffed. “We’re taking bets. Or… Narcissa is, everyone else is betting. Even Minerva.”

“Ooh, I wonder which way she’s leaning?” Harry whistled.

“Don’t know, not asking.” Hermione shook her head.

A slight buzz distracted Harry’s attention and his seeker training kicked in, his hand raised and faster than any of the dwarves could blink, his fingers closed around a small golden ball with wings.

Hermione snorted again and raised her wand to her throat. “ _Sonorus_.” She said and when she spoke next her voice was amplified. “Game! Harry has the snitch.”

A few muttered expletives came from the other side of the pitch where Draco and Charlie were stalking something that appeared to not be a snitch, after all.

“Master Harry?” Balin turned to Harry after looking at the other dwarves. “I think I can safely say that very few of our Company are interested in watching you play quidditch and on a regular basis and I think that even fewer are interested in **_playing_** quidditch.” Dori frantically nodded, while Ori exchanged eager glances with Fíli and Kíli.

“Everyone to their own, Balin. Hermione’s into books, Lavender’s into clothes, Fred and George are into pranks, Severus is into potions, I’m not. Quidditch and teaching are more my things.” Harry shrugged.


	22. Chapter 22

_Hermione snorted again and raised her wand to her throat. “Sonorus.” She said and when she spoke next her voice was amplified. “Game! Harry has the snitch.”_

_A few muttered expletives came from the other side of the pitch where Draco and Charlie were stalking something that appeared to not be a snitch, after all._

_“Master Harry?” Balin turned to Harry after looking at the other dwarves. “I think I can safely say that very few of our Company are interested in watching you play quidditch and I think that even fewer are interested in **playing** quidditch.”_

_“Everyone to their own, Balin. Hermione’s into books, Lavender’s into clothes, Fred and George are into pranks, Severus is into potions, I’m not. Quidditch and teaching are more my things.” Harry shrugged._

Harry watched as Hermione and Draco exchanged their marriage vows and bonded themselves to each other for life. His heart filled with joy and peace at their expressions of love and happiness.

“If only Ron were here to see that.” Charlie nudged at his shoulder. “He wouldn’t be whinging about nasty Slytherins and how heartless they are. Draco’s feelings are more visible than a bludger to the face.”

Harry snickered. “And wouldn’t his father be disgusted with that?”

“Not at much as he’d be disgusted with Draco marrying a muggleborn.” Sirius added from behind them.

“Hush.” Remus tapped them on the shoulders.

“Sorry, Remy.” The three wizards muttered but Charlie nudged Harry with his shoulder again, gave him a cheeky grin and mouthed ‘who’s next?’.

“Ah, Master Harry? Thorin would like a word, when you’ve time. We have a few… concerns about the route to Erebor.” Balin said after approaching Harry and Sirius, as they sat in the garden near the pavilion’s open-air kitchen.

“Concerns with the route? Um…” Harry bit his lip.

“Lavender, Padma and Parvati were dealing with that, weren’t they?” Sirius asked.

“Yes, I think they were… Balin give me a few minutes to round up one or more of the girls. What say I meet you and Thorin down by the creek? In say… fifteen minutes?” Harry asked.

“That would be fine, Master Harry.” Balin gave a short bow and continued on his way towards the communal kitchen.

By the time Harry had located Lavender and the Patil sisters and gently chivvied them along to the creek, Thorin, Balin and Dwalin were waiting for them. Harry conjured seating for them all and a table for the girls, smiling as Lavender sat between Padma and Parvati and pulled the table towards them.

“Thorin? Balin mentioned you have a concern with the route to Erebor. Lavender, Padma and Parvati are our… travel consultants.” Harry smothered a chuckle at the sideways glare from Padma.

“We do, Master Harry.” Balin nodded. “It’s partially to do with the route and partially to do with the flying issue itself.”

“Ah. Should we get Katie, Angelina and Alicia involved?” Harry asked.

“No, Master Harry, it’s not about being able to fly but… some of our lads… they’re not happy about going so high. We’d have to be… The trees of Mirkwood are oaks, most oaks reach forty feet in height, but the ones there have been encouraged to grow by the elves, they’re more likely to be sixty to eighty feet tall. None of our lads… barring Fíli, Kíli and, surprisingly, Ori… are comfortable going that high, not for the length of time it will take to cross the forest. Then there’s… convenience…” Balin flushed slightly and avoided looking at the three witches, “breaks to take into consideration. We feel that we need to eliminate the direct route across the forest, as the preferred route.”

“Bugger…” Harry muttered, earning himself an absent-minded smack on the shoulder from Padma, who was closest to him. “Alright, what does that leave us with?” He asked the three witches.

“Hmm…” Lavender spread out a map and tapped it in two different places. “Well, we have the road option, but we don’t like that option, given that we’d have to either, travel at night or under disillusionment charms the whole way.”

“Why?” Harry asked.

“The road is patrolled by the elves. A convoy of thirty-plus brooms, up to ten flying sofas and at least a pair of carpets… It’s going to visible, Harry, really visible.” Parvati answered and Harry snickered at the image in his mind. “Unfortunately, elves are really good at using bows and arrows. The chances of them firing on us are… bluntly? Over ninety percent.”

“Ouch.” Harry’s snickers stopped and he winced.

“Yes, exactly.” Parvati nodded.

“So, where does that leave us?” Harry asked.

“The only other option is going around the forest.” Padma answered.

“Around the forest?” Harry repeated.

“Yes, either north or south. Going south is going to make the distance about… a thousand miles to Erebor.” Padma explained.

“Oh, Merlin…” Harry whined, and his head fell into his hands.

“Going north is only going to add about fifty miles to the trip.” Lavender added.

“Fifty?” Harry’s head rose quickly.

“Fifty.” Lavender repeated. “We’re a little less than that from the most northern point of the forest. If we go north, the dwarves will be able to stay fairly low, twenty feet is still high enough to avoid boulders and trees and the like, but low enough that if they fall, they’re less likely to be severely injured.”

“That would be much appreciated.” Balin put in.

“But what about the elves?” Dwalin asked. “Won’t they still be able to see us?”

“Yes, but as we’ll have a clear route, we can increase the speed a little. Shooting an arrow at a moving target is hard enough, firing at one that’s moving at fifty-plus miles an hour? That’s a whole lot harder.” Lavender.

“Huh.” Dwalin grunted and nodded.

“Besides, we can have Bill put an early detection ward around the scouts’ brooms to alert us and send a warning back to the carpets.” Harry suggested.

“And maybe a spotter flying higher above the convoy?” Padma added.

“Or have the scouts far enough in advance that they can order a change in direction for the convoy.” Parvati suggested.

“Why not a combination of both?” Dwalin asked. “Four, low to the front, about a mile ahead of the main convoy and two spotters that only stays up high for a few minutes. Rotate them out, the spotters fall back to the convoy, two from the convoy move to scout and two from the scouts moves to spotter.”

“Time of rotation?” Harry asked.

“Make it… five minutes?” Dwalin replied. “Any longer and they’re likely to lose focus. And I also suggest stops every hour, we’re not flyers, not yet. Not really.” He huffed. “Keeping flights to an hour? That’ll give the lads a chance to touch the ground, walk around, have a… convenience break,” he didn’t flush, but he did avoid looking at Padma, Lavender and Parvati, “get a drink or sommit to eat.”

Harry nodded. “That would… probably be a good idea, only five of us have experience at distance flying and that wasn’t brooms.” He saw the questioning look from Padma and shrugged. “Fifth year, between Umbitch and the DoM, we fly Thestrals from Hogwarts to London.” Padma’s eyes widened in surprise. “So, yeah…” Harry went on. “Five-minute rotations and one-hour legs. That work for everyone?”

“And keeping the forest in sight? How close?” Parvati asked, as she made notes.

“I think we should be close enough to use the fringes of the forest as cover, if we run into trouble from the north.” Dwalin replied. “I dain’t like elves much and they dain't like us, but orcs and goblins, they like ‘em even less. They won’t stand for the beasts to enter their precious forest. Should give us time to get out of the way and back into the air.”

Harry and Dwalin exchange a speaking look before Harry nodded. “We can work around that. I’ll see if Remus can modify a notice-me-not charm to make it elf or orc targeted as opposed to muggle targeted.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Padma shrugged. “Notice-me-nots were seventh-year stuff but we never covered them at Hogwarts, the Carrows cut anything privacy related from the curriculum.”

“Of course, they did.” Harry huffed. “Those are some of the main components of the charms NEWT exams.”

“We should ask Professor Lupin to cover them, for the rest of the week. That should bring most of us up to proficiency.” Parvati suggested and wrote another note on a separate piece of parchment.

“Yeah, the rest of us can help with that. There’s almost enough of us to have one-on-one.” Harry nodded.

“Brilliant!” Lavender beamed at Harry.

“Great. Anything else?” Harry asked, before answering his own question. “Oh, sofas. Have your dwarves chosen what they’ll be flying? Seated brooms, carpets or sofas?” That question was directed at Thorin, this time.

“They have.” Thorin nodded. “Bombur and Bifur would prefer to be on carpets, if there are enough of them?”

“There are.” Padma replied. “I’ll get one put aside for each of them.” And she pulled the piece of parchment that Parvati had last wrote on, over to her and made another note on it.

“Thank you, Miss Padma.” Thorin nodded and went on. “Balin, Oín, Gloín and Dori would prefer sofas. Or rather chairs.”

“That’s fine. They’ll need to come to the commissary to pick them out.” Lavender nudged Padma and nodded to the parchment, Padma handed her the quill and slid the parchment across to her and Lavender wrote down a few words.

“And the rest of us are quite happy on the seated brooms, although… Fíli, Kíli and Ori would have preferred the quidditch brooms. But as you stated that even your people would not be using them, they have resigned themselves to the seated brooms.” Thorin finished.

Harry grinned and tilted his head. “Would they be interested in being reserves for a quidditch team? We’ll train them.”

“Quite probably… But I’d wait until after Erebor is recovered, give Dori a chance to see that Ori can defend himself, if needed.” Balin suggested.

“Fair enough.” Harry nodded. “So… what else do we have to do before we can leave?” He asked Lavender.

“Boost Beorn’s boundary wards. Modify the sofas… or chairs… for the dwarves and those of us that don’t want to ride brooms or carpets. You get to explain to Buckbeak what’s happening, so he doesn't try and follow us. Dwalin wants to check that we’re all up to level with our weapons. The quidditch queens want to test us all on the seated brooms. Frank wants us all to go through the gauntlet again. Miss Sissy wants to do health scans on all of us, seems Fleur is pregnant, and Miss Sissy wants to make sure that no-one else is and that no-one else is ill, either. We need to restock our travel larders. Work out who is travelling where. Work out who’s on the scout/spotter rotations schedule and in what order. And pack, of course. Each of us have a trunk, so we can shrink our cottages and put them in the trunks, shrink the trunks and either put them in a belt like you’ve got, or into a satchel for carrying.” Lavender replied.

“That last one should be up to each person. You all know the risks of carrying things in a bag. If you get captured, you may lose the bag. The belt is the safest option, but have we got enough for everyone?” Harry queried.

“Not yet, we don’t. But we should have by the weekend.” Parvati answered. “Hermione, Justin, Lee, Auror Longbottom, Professor McGonagall and Headley are working on them. Apparently, either the Unspeakables or the Aurors gave Hermione a training memory of how to make them and she’s shared it with some of us. Padma and I will be helping them with making some undetectably extended bags, just small ones, but big enough to carry a traveller’s pantry, some water and a few personal things.”

“Excellent.” Harry beamed at the girls. “Who’s doing what?”

“Bill and Professor Snape are seeing to the wards.” Lavender answered. “Colin, Dennis and Euan will help the dwarves, and us, pick chairs or sofas for the trip. Fred, George, Professor Lupin and Mr Black will do the modifications. You get to explain to Buckbeak that we’re going to look at a new territory. The Quidditch Queens are on broom testing. Frank and Dwalin are on weapons and gauntlet testing. Miss Sissy and Fleur are doing the health checks. Everything else? We should talk to Hermione and Draco, she’s the one in charge of scheduling and he’s the one in charge of the commissary.” Padma and Parvati nodded in unison.

“Cool. Do you need me or Thorin or Dwalin for that?” Harry asked.

“It would be helpful to have Master Dwalin and Master Bombur. Auror Longbottom will want to talk to Master Dwalin and Draco will want to talk Master Bombur about supplies.” Lavender replied. “But you need to talk to the hippogriffs. They need to stay where they’re protected, at least until the dragon is dealt with.”

“Ugh… Do I have to…?” Harry whined.

“Yes, you do. Oh, and you need to have a chat with Justin, he’s got a surprise for you.” Lavender smiled at him prettily.

“Oh, god… What now?” Harry whined.

“Oh, no, this is a good thing. You’ll like it.” Padma gave him a beaming smile.

“Okay… that’s not instilling any confidence in me.” Harry warned.

“You come back and say, you didn’t like it… and mean it… and I’ll make you a treacle tart every day for a month.” Padma offered.

“…oohh…” Harry breathed out in a silent exclamation.

“Yeah. You go see Justin.” Padma nodded

“Okay…” Harry nodded back.

Harry entered the library building and made his way through to the classrooms at the back.

“Hello?” He called out rapping his knuckles on the doorframe.

“Yes?” Hermione opened the door. “Oh, Harry, hello. What’s wrong?”

“Um… according to Padma, nothing. She told me I needed to speak to Justin, something about a surprise?” He grimaced and tilted his head.

“Ah… Yes… Just a moment.” Hermione turned to the room behind her. “Justin? Harry’s here to ask about He- his surprise. You want to deal with that, please?”

“Sure. I can do that.” The Hufflepuff stood up and crossed the room. “Come on, let’s have a little bit of a walk. I need to check on a clutch of owlets. They’re fledglings that aren’t far off leaving the nest permanently.”

“Uh… sure…” Harry shrugged.

As they crossed the field, Harry wondered what Justin had in store for him. They entered the tower that housed the owlery, Justin held back his smirk by sheer willpower. Bare seconds after Harry entered through the door there was a screeching sound and a thump as something landed, _**hard**_ , on Harry shoulder. Harry’s knees threatened to fold up under him as nearly ten pounds of something descended onto one of his shoulders. 

He turned to look at it and all he saw was a face full of white feathers, before a new sound registered in his ears.

“Hoot!” The deep breathy hoot was intimately fixed in his heart.

“Hedwig?!” He gasped and tears began to run down his cheeks.

 ** _“Hoot!”_** His first and dearest friend hooted and began to preen his hair.

“Hedwig! No! It’s messy enough without your help.” He uttered the familiar objection and just as familiarly, she ignored him and continued to preen him.


	23. Chapter 23

_He turned to look at it and all he saw was a face full of white feathers, before a new sound registered in his mind._

_“Hoot!” The deep breathy hoot was intimately fixed in his heart._

_“Hedwig?!” He gasped and tears began to run down his cheeks._

**_“Hoot!”_ ** _His first and dearest friend hooted and began to preen his hair._

_“Hedwig! No! It’s messy enough without your help.” He uttered the familiar objection and just as familiarly, she ignored him and continued to preen him._

Harry sat on a carpet sixty feet above the convoy, as they took a well needed break, he knew that Oliver would be along to relieve him in a few minutes, but until then, he focused on the surrounding area. The convoy had touched down for their third ‘convenience’ break just a hundred yards from the edge of the forest, and that was causing Harry to be a little on edge, he could feel eyes watching from the trees.

In his peripheral, he saw Oliver mount a quidditch broom and shot skyward. His former captain looped and twisted, rising and diving, revelling in the freedom that a quidditch broom offered. Under the edge of the trees, Harry saw a trio of people stumble from the shelter in the direction of the convoy, and while they were elves, Harry could see that their bows were left behind as they left the trees.

“ _Expecto patronum_.” Harry waited for the stag to form. “Message to the convoy… Elves incoming from the forest. They left their bows under the trees. Still have blades but appear _confunded_ or in shock. All underage, into the air, shields up. Now.” Harry ordered.

It took two seconds for the stag to appear in the air above the convoy and another two for people to act. The younger students and Bombur leapt for a carpet and it quickly rose, gaining a shimmering glow that settled around them. The three elves paused when they saw the flurry of movement and slowed but didn’t quite stop. The blonde elf that seemed to be their leader held his hands forward to show his peaceful intent, the redheaded female to his left copying his action while the brunette’s shoulders slumped before he did the same.

“Harry, you better get down there, they’re going to need you. I’ve got spotter.” Oliver slipped from the broom to the carpet and handed the broom over to Harry.

“Thanks, Ollie.” Harry gave his adopted brother a grin and leapt into the air, mounting the broom as he went. He skidded to a halt between Thorin and Sirius. “Hey,” was all he said in greeting.

“Anything new to add?” Thorin asked.

“The elves paused when the kids moved but kept coming.” Harry replied.

“So I see.” Thorin nodded to the elves, who’d come to a halt about ten yards from where Harry and Thorin stood with Sirius and Dwalin to guard them.

The two groups eyed each other, the elves looked… for lack of a better term… freaked out, while Harry and Sirius were cautious and Thorin and Dwalin were suspicious. The three elves were clearly rattle though, even Thorin could see that something had broken through their usual haughty demeanour.

“Hello.” Harry said trying to remain calm, he didn’t know how many more elves there were and getting the rest of the convoy into the air and out of arrow reach, was going to take time. He was prepared to risk Thorin and Dwalin but only because he knew that he and Sirius could apparate them away.

The blonde elf opened his mouth and after a few seconds, closed it again.

“Greetings.” The redheaded she-elf to the right, was the one that spoke. “We…”

“He flew!” Gasped the blonde elf, causing the brunette to sigh and send an apologetic look at Harry before he reached out and smacked the blonde across the back of the head. “What?!” The blonde turned to the brunette. “He flew! You saw him.”

“I did, but I didn’t blurt it out like a child. Honestly, Legolas, you’re nearly three thousand years old. Surely, I’ve managed to knock a few manners into your head, by now.” The brunette huffed. Harry bit his lip, the brunette sounded so like Hermione had as she’d lectured Ron during their time at Hogwarts.

“Kressian… I-” The blonde, Legolas, whined.

“Quiet. If you can’t be polite, be quiet.” The brunette replied, cutting him off and turning from Legolas to Harry and Thorin. “Greetings, I am Kressian Maple-silk, guide and mentor to this rude child, whose name is Legolas Greenleaf.” He gave them a short bow.

“I am Tauriel Starfire.” The female gave a similar bow.

Thorin glanced at Harry and watched as the young wizard gave him a small nod. “Greetings.” He responded. “I am Thorin Oakenshield.” He looked to Dwalin. “My cousin, Dwalin.” Dwalin gave the elves a nod. “Our travelling companions, Harry, Lord of the House of Potter and Sirius, Lord of the House of Black.”

“Greetings.” Both Harry and Sirius spoke and gave short bows.

“He flew.” Legolas pointed at Harry. “How…?”

“Nienna grant me patience.” Kressian looked up at the sky. “Legolas! _**Shut**_ your _**mouth!”**_

“But…”

“Now!” Kressian added and Legolas huffed. “Please excuse him, he was raised by a doting father, that never denied him anything.

“Accepted.” Thorin nodded, but let a small smile twist his lips. “But he wasn’t wrong. Harry did fly.”

“Would you… How?” Kressian frowned.

“Ah… Harry and his people are… refugees… they are far from their homeland. In their homeland, magic users are… perhaps not common, but not nearly as rare as they are here.” Thorin turned to Sirius. “How many did you say were born with the ability?”

“Roughly one in every million, some places were a little less, some were more. It depends on a number of factors, location being only one of them.” Sirius replied.

“How many of you are here?” Tauriel asked Sirius.

“Thirty-five people but we brought quite a few animals with us.” Sirius shrugged.

“Animals?” Tauriel asked.

“Forty-eight bowtruckles, thirty-five people, twenty-two hippogriffs, eighteen owls, sixteen unicorns, eleven kneazles, six fairies.” Sirius answered. “Mind, that has increased, as some of the females have either birthed or hatched offspring.”

“What?” Tauriel looked confused.

“Never-mind.” Sirius waved her off.

“But what are you doing here?” Kressian asked.

“Harry?” Thorin asked.

“Sure.” Harry grinned. “Well, we met up with Thorin and his Company a few weeks ago and decided to lend a hand. Thorin wants to reclaim Erebor for his people but has a dragon to deal with before he can do that. We have dragon experience.” He paused as Sirius muttered something. “What was that?” He asked Sirius.

“You might have dragon experience, pup, but some of us have more brains than that.” Sirius responded with a smile.

“Sure, and some of us have more brains than to chase a Fanged Frisbee, too.” Harry snarked back.

“That was just once.” Sirius squawked. “You did dragons twice.”

“Techinally, three times, but one was a hatchling, so it didn't really count. And as for the adult dragons? Both times were Snakeface’s fault. Crouch jnr entered me in the tournament, against my will and we had to break into Gringotts to get the cup from Bellatrix's vault, getting out on a dragon was Hermione’s idea, not mine.” Harry huffed.

“You’ve dealt with dragon’s before?” Legolas asked.

“Sure. Charlie’s a dragon handler, that was what he was trained for. He got an apprenticeship straight out of school, so that makes… seven years…? Yeah, seven years he’s been working at a dragon preserve.” Harry answered brightly. “His brother, Bill, is a curse-breaker and he’s often been called in to work with Charlie, particularly if there’s a curse or spells involved. Fleur was in the tournament with me and Hermione was in Gringotts with me.”

“Do you know how to kill Smaug?” Legolas leant forward a little.

“Not exactly. We’ve got a whole slew of ideas, but until we actually sight the dragon, itself, we can’t be certain which idea is going to be best suited.” Harry replied.

“Ideas?” Tauriel asked.

“Well, bluntly, we don’t know how impervious it is to magic. Charlie will be able to work that out and then we’ll make our plans according to that.” Harry explained.

“But you have plans?” Tauriel asked. “Plans that will work?”

“Depending on what Charlie says, yeah.” Harry nodded.

“Like what? If the beast is impervious to magic?” Tauriel asked.

“He might be impervious to magic, but not to physical assault. A steel pike through his skull is one option. A reversed bubble-head charm is another.” Seeing the blank looks, Harry sighed. “A bubble-head charm provides a bubble of clean air around the head of a person. A reversed bubble-head charm provides the same bubble but sucks out all the air instead. He’ll suffocate and if he tries to breath fire, he’ll end up burning himself, as the bubble will hold the fire in.”

“Oh…” Tauriel gasped silently.

“And if he’s not impervious?” Kressian asked.

“In that case, there’s a heck of a lot we can do. Memory charms, turn him to stone, extinguish his fire, encase him in ice, I mean heck, we can always shrink him until he’s small enough to no longer be a problem, but really…? Worst comes to worst, cutting curses or blasting hexes can be lethal if aimed right. Charlie can make sure we hit him in the right place to do the most damage.” Harry shrugged.

“Shrink…” All three elves gasped.

“You can do that?” Legolas demanded.

“Sure.” Harry flicked his wrist to let his wand fall into his hand and point his wand at a boulder a few yards away. “Watch. [_Engorgio_](Enlarging%20charm).” The boulder enlarged to twice its size. “[ _Reducio_](Shrinking%20charm). [_Reducio_](Shrinking%20charm).” It shrank to half its original size. “Finite.” The boulder returned to its former size.

“[ _Oh, melui Nienna ne-Menel_](Oh,%20Sweet%20Nienna%20in%20Heaven).” Kressian muttered. “[ _Sen ava-meth mae. Ni dae ist sen_](This%20is%20not%20going%20to%20end%20well.%20I%20just%20know%20it.).”

“One moment, please.” Legolas dragged Kressian and Tauriel a few yards away and spoke to them earnestly in low tones, too low for Harry or Sirius to hear without the aid of an eavesdropping charm and neither were ready to risk the loss of a potential alliance just yet, by casting one.

“Are you on a set timeline?” Legolas asked when they re-joined Thorin and Harry. “I would like to send a messenger to my father. He has long desired the end of the dragon but had never felt that there was a viable solution. If you have such a solution, I believe that he would be greatly interested.”

“Your father?” Thorin asked.

“My father is Thranduil, king of Eryn Galen.” Legolas replied, causing Dwalin to grunt and Thorin shake his head in disbelief.

“You think he would render us aid? He despises the Line of Durin, mostly for my grandfather’s actions, I admit. But still… I cannot see him willingly providing assistance.” Thorin warned.

“Your grandfather?” Legolas tilted his head in confusion. “I do not understand why your grandfather’s actions would affect my father.”

“I am Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain. Erebor is our home, the greatest of all the dwarven kingdoms.” Thorin answered the unasked question.

“Oh…” Legolas’s eyes widened, and his mouth formed a perfect ‘O’.

“Exactly.” Thorin sighed.

“Father will not be responsive to any suggestion that involves the Line of Durin.” Legolas.

“Leave that out, then.” Sirius suggested.

“That could be…” Kressian tilted his head back and studied the sky in thought.

“If your report centred on Lord Potter and Lord Black, and only addressed Thorin Oakenshield as their travelling companions? Might that sidestep the issue?” Tauriel asked.

“It might. I would need to word it carefully, omit direct refence to the Line of Durin, perhaps address Thorin as Master Oakenshield, not as Thorin Oakenshield.” Kressian nodded. “Yes, that might work.” He looked to Thorin. “With your consent, of course, sir.”

“I would like to know what you intend to report, before you leave.” Thorin said.

“Perhaps, the four of you and Balin could sit down and work it out?” Harry said. “I don’t know enough about any of this to contribute much.”

“But we need your input, we know practically nothing about what you can do.” Kressian objected.

“Not me. You need… hmm… What do reckon, Sirius? Charlie, Snape, McGonagall, Remus and Bill?” Harry looked to his godfather for agreement.

“Yeah…” Sirius hummed. “That sounds about right.”

“Cool. You lot get started on that report and I’ll get the others down and set up a camp.” Harry looked around. “Maybe over there?” He pointed off to the north. “That rise?”

“Yes, that would easily defendable.” Tauriel nodded.

“Great. I’ll be back in a few.” Harry gave them a grin, mounted his broom and rose into the sky.

Up at the convoy, he explained what had happened and slowly the convoy made their way in the direction of the proposed camping site.

Balin joined him and nodded, before frowning.

“I would not have thought that the Prince of Mirkwood would have so agreeable. I’d have expected a much longer negotiation before he’d truly considered sending a positive report.” He then snorted. “Mind, I’d not have expected Thorin to be so accepting, either.”

Harry laughed. “I think in Thorin’s case, we’ve knocked the ‘I don’t need help’ out of him. In Legolas' case, I think seeing magic is what changed his mind. Knowing magic exists is one thing, but seeing it the way we use it? That’s a different matter altogether.”

Balin nodded in thought as his chair floated alongside Harry’s broom, while Bill, Minerva, Severus and Remus, with Teddy in his arms, followed them. Remus had been hesitant to bring Teddy, but Balin had told them that it would assure the elves that they were meeting to talk, not to fight, no-one brings a child to a fight.

The three elves looked a little wild-eyed to see flying armchairs and a sofa, but the sight of Teddy was what rendered them silent. They gazed at the baby in what could only be described as awe.

“Will he…? Will he grow up to be…? Will he do magic, one day?” Legolas whispered.

Remus laughed. “He’s already doing accidental stuff. But this morning we discovered that he has his mother’s gift of metamorphmagi.”

“Meta… what is meta morph magi?” Tauriel asked.

“Metamorphmagi is the ability to change one’s own appearance, be it hair, skin or eye colour. To change one’s height or build or even bone structure.” Remus answered. “His mother favoured pink or purple hair and whenever she was angry her hair would turn red. Teddy here, has at least her ability to change his hair, whether he will be able to control it or not, is another thing, but we won’t know that until he’s older. By the time he’s five or six, we should be able to walk him through the changes and we’ll know how far the gift extends.”

“Oh, and I missed it?!” Harry squawked.

“You did, pup.” Remus said. “You were busy with Buckbeak and Beorn.”

“Oh… bollocks.” Harry muttered.

“Language, Mr Potter. If I can issue your godfather with a detention, twenty years after he left school, I can certainly issue you, whom left school only a year ago, with one.” McGonagall chided primly.

“Yes, Professor.” Harry replied brightly, grinning at the witch.

“Oh, you… Get out of here, Potter, go and help your brothers set up camp. I am assuming that we’ll be here for a few days?” McGonagall directed the latter question to Sirius and Thorin.

“At this point, yes. How many is unknown, yet.” Sirius answered and raised a brow to Kressian and Legolas.

“Introductions first, mutt.” Remus chided.

“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry.” Sirius grimaced.

“I’m off, then. Come on over, when you’re ready.” Harry mounted his broom and rose into the air and flew away at a reasonably, for him, sedate pace.

“I’ll come with ya.” Dwalin trailed after him.

The four wizards, three elves, two dwarves and one witch settled themselves down at a hastily conjured table and began to rough out what Kressian would tell Thranduil.

A ghostly Patronus appeared in front of Harry and spoke. “The elf has returned, he’s not alone. There’s a dozen or so more with him. They all have travel packs, by the look of it, plus plenty of weapons. No horses, though. They’re all waiting at the edge of the forest and Kressian has approached the boulders we used as a table to hash out his report on.” Bill’s voice informed him. “Do I bring them in? Or do you come to them?”

Harry looked from the Patronus to Legolas, who was instructing Headley in the finer details of archery, that he in his three thousand years of experience had accumulated.

“Legolas? Kressian has returned with a dozen elves. Do you want to see to them? Or shall I ask Bill to bring in?” Harry asked.

“Ah… I think I had best be among those to collect them, there may be a message from my father that needs my attention. And I doubt that elven warriors would happily take commands from an unknown person without objection.” Legolas replied.

“Can I come, too?” Headley asked. He had given up trying to retain any of Dudley's personality and was now a bright and cheery boy, who enjoyed spending time with Harry, Colin, Dennis and Oliver.

Harry and Legolas exchanged looks and both shrugged, an action that Legolas had barely known prior to his time with the Hogwarts group.

“Sure, why not?” Harry answered and the three headed for the other elves, Tauriel joining them before they left the archery [butts](archery%20field).

Upon reaching them Legolas nodded to Kressian. “Report.”

“It took me a full day to reach the Halls.” Kressian started. “I informed the commander of the watch, of your actions and requested an audience with the King. I was given time to bathe and dress, before my audience but no longer than that. I reported to his majesty and gave him the letter as you directed me to. He read it and dismissed me, informing me that I was to present myself to the audience chamber an hour after dawn, that he would have a decision made by that time. Upon entering the audience chamber the next morning, his majesty informed me that he’d given the matter much thought, overnight and had decided that your reasoning was sound. But… he was not overly encouraged to assist dwarves. That said, he ordered a call for volunteers to man an outpost at Erebor, enough for three patrols. They would be under your command, your highness.” The last was directed at Legolas.

“Fifteen elves? That’s it?” Tauriel demanded.

“Yes, captain, that’s it, and even that comes with caveats.” Kressian sighed.

“What are they?” Legolas winced.

“Your highness, captain Tauriel and myself will be the primary contacts with the dwarves, his majesty will have no personal contact with them, barring a battlefield. The cost of the outpost to the dwarves is the return of the White Gems of Lasgalen, to be interred with your highness’ Lady mother.” Kressian went on.

“Father commissioned them for her burial.” Legolas said, nodding.

“And my grandfather denied him, them. I agree to this cost, they shall be returned, assuming that we can impinge on a witch or wizard to locate them for us.” Thorin appeared at Legolas' shoulder, causing a few elves to tense.

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Legolas said, briefly, his emotions surging. “Go on. What else?” He asked Kressian.

“His majesty called for volunteers, stating that all must be single and of sufficient proficiency to lead a patrol, if it were necessary. I was given the directive to inspect, question and select the final personnel. The outpost is to be established and manned for a minimum of ten years, if at the end of that time, the personnel wish, they may return to the Halls, however after the dragon is dead or defeated, you may recruit elves from [Eryn Galen](mirkwood), Lothlorien, [Imladris](Rivendell) or [Mithlond](the%20Grey%20Havens). At the end of the ten-year period, one of two things may happen. One? The Outpost will move from a military installation to a domestic one, with you as the Head of State. Two? The Outpost will remain as an ambassadorial office. This will mean that all personnel will be rotated out and no-one will remain there for longer than a year. The choice will be yours.”

Legolas frowned at Kressian's answer. “That’s…”

“Anorion will rule after your father, his place is Eryn Galen.” Kressian nodded. “You are the second son and your father had nothing to offer you but a place in his guard, this is his offering to you. A place to call your own, a Principality of your own. Anorion will be far happier with you away from the forest and you… I know that you long for the open sky. Yes, you will have to work hand-in-glove with Erebor, but is that really a hardship?”

“No. No, it’s not. I would need to discuss the exact location with Thorin, but I can see an Outpost benefitting both Eryn Galen and Erebor.” Legolas hummed in thought.

“Yes, I can see that, too.” Thorin nodded.

“Excellent. I’ve brought three patrols, all volunteers, all willing to work to see the venture is successful.” Kressian gave a small smile.

“Who did you bring?” Tauriel asked.

“Lendalen, Deranor, Finfain, Terrend and Rosslass are the first patrol. Thelren, Maelruin, Panthred, Jessian and Tomold are the second. And Kinrieth, Ambelen, Coreldar, Torvold and Windelor are the third. Plus, I have interest from another thirty elves, that are prepared to wait a year or more for the chance to live in the sun.” Kressian replied and as he said each name, an elf came forward, their hand full of travel-packs. “We left our horses with a returning patrol, I figured that Harry’s people’s transport is likely to be faster than even the freshest of elven mounts.”

Harry nodded and gave a smile. “That’s true.”

“And it would reinforce the position of the patrols, as a part of your party.” Kressian added.

“It would.” Thorin nodded. “Harry? It’s reasonably early in the day. Are we likely to travel more, today? Or shall we wait until morning?”

“If the elves are joining us, I would prefer to wait until morning. At least. That would give Miss Sissy and Fleur a chance to test them and see if we need to make more crystals. Maybe give the quidditch queens a chance to teach them to fly. If they’re interested, that is. If they’re not, we’ll pull out a couple more carpets and divide the elves up among them.” Harry replied.

“Transport is your bailiwick, I shall leave that to you and your people to work out.” Thorin allowed.

“Have you sufficient food for an extended stay?” One of the elves, Harry thought it was either Terrend or Rosslass, asked. “We are happy to hunt, if there is need.”

“No, food’s not an issue, we’ve got plenty of that. Enough to last a hundred people, at least three years, maybe more if we set crops. But thanks for the offer.” Harry gave the elf a nod.

“You have that with you? What if you were to be raided?” Another elf asked, this time Harry had no idea what his name was.

Harry laughed. “Wouldn’t help anyone. We’ve got it locked to any but us.”

Bill held up a hand to get Harry to stop. “Enough, Harry. If we’re adding elves to our group, they need to be seen by Sissy and Fleur.”

“They do. Come on, let’s get you sorted. Mione and Draco will work out where we’re putting you all and how you’re going to travel. Dwalin will want to know your weapons and how proficient you are with them.” As he spoke, Harry gestured and began to lead the elves back to the encampment and the waiting Medi-witches.


	24. Chapter 24

_Bill held up a hand to get Harry to stop. “Enough, Harry. If we’re adding elves to our group, they need to be seen by Sissy and Fleur.”_

_“They do. Come on, let’s get you sorted. Mione and Draco will work out where we’re putting you all and how you’re going to travel. Dwalin will want to know your weapons and how proficient you are with them.” As he spoke, Harry gestured and began to lead the elves back to the encampment and the waiting Medi-witches._

The rest of the flight to Erebor was quiet. The elves were still coming to terms with magic and how freely the Hogwarts community used it and how versatile it was. So very different from the Istari. They specialised in one area and rarely moved outside that circle of capability, but the Hogwarts community seemed to cover many areas.

Neville was the one to startle them the most, the gentle man going from tending his plants to a training spar with his father or Harry, just stunned them. Here was a plant healer but… he was also a warrior, the two didn’t meet, not as far as the elves were concerned. But it was the common theme for Hogwarts, that everyone be able to work in a number of different fields.

And then there was quidditch.

The night the elves joined them there was a pick-up game. Harry and Draco were the seekers and the game lasted for nearly two hours, by which time the elves could do little but shudder. The lengths the witches and wizards went to for a game? It scared the fertiliser out of them.

No wonder they weren’t afraid of a dragon.

They reached the ruined city of Dale a little before sunset, eleven days after leaving Beorn’s and within moments of landing, Bill, Charlie and Remus, who seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades, threw up a series of protection and concealment charms, before Hermione and Sirius added a few from the Black library from Grimmauld Place.

While they were doing that Harry sent a Patronus to Beorn to update him on their arrival and that they would spend that night making plans and probably only do a reconnaissance trip the next day, before more planning. They expected to attack the mountain and the dragon in the next few days, but until the recon trip was done, that was unconfirmed.

Colin was the unofficial ‘mayor’ of the Nest and it was he that carried its pocket-space frame in a belt like Harry’s. He removed the frame and after clearing an area against a wall, in the corner of a destroyed building that still had most of its ceiling intact, he attached the frame to the wall and one by one, the tired travellers entered the Nest. The elves had been given a house, and much like the dwarves had, had asked if it were possible for someone to alter its appearance to resemble a stone building. It had startled the dwarves when they’d first seen the newly altered structure, but the heavy stone comforted them, and they’d begun to tentatively accept the elves as part of the group.

Unfortunately the elves had no more of a developed core than the dwarves and for them flying was to require the same conditions as the dwarves. Legolas, Tauriel, Jessian and Torvold were the only elves to be comfortable flying, the others could do it, but much preferred to ride a carpet than a broom or even a chair. Having four elves with their enhanced vision as spotters made a welcome change for the scout rotation, allowing the group to have a rotation of just spotters, consisting of the four elves, Harry, Charlie, Draco and Bill. They still had a magical with them, but that magical was there more for the spotter’s protection and communication, than as a second set of eyes. It made the trip a little less stressful and a little more fun, the younger magicals being allowed to fly between the carpets to visit their friends.

But now they were in Dale, making plans for the recon into the mountain.

“Okay…” Headley was the youngest and clearly the least able to take part in the upcoming mission, so he was the one to chair the planning meeting, with Natalie taking notes. “What do we need this mission to achieve?” He asked.

There was a smattering of mutters before a dwarf spoke up.

“We need to know if the dragon is still alive.” Kíli said.

“Right. Natalie?” Headley turned to the young blonde Gryffindor at his side. “Can you make two lists? One for if the dragon is alive and one for if it’s not?”

“Sure.” The little Canadian-born muggleborn gave him a small smile, nervous at speaking in front of so many people.

“Thanks. Let’s work on the first list. The dragon’s alive. What else do we need to know?”

“Is it impervious to magic?” Harry called out.

“How big is it?” Charlie asked from between Bill and Harry.

“How badly its infected the mountain.” Hermione added.

“How badly damaged the city is.” Balin said.

“Has the dragon laid traps? Has the damage caused instabilities in the mountain that we’ll have to correct before attacking dragon? The last thing we need is to kill the dragon and have the mountain brought down on us in retaliation.” Bill added.

“How will we get into the mountain?” Thorin asked. “There’s a hidden door but we don’t know where it is. Not exactly, anyway.”

“Why would we need a hidden door?” Dennis asked.

“How else do we plan to get into the mountain?” Fíli asked.

“Uh… Windows…? We have brooms that can fly.” Dennis said slowly. “We can fly in through any open space, no matter how far above the ground it is.” Thorin’s face showed his shock. “You’d forgotten that, hadn’t you?”

“I had.” Thorin admitted. “Very well, access is not the issue.”

“It is, but more where to gain access? Which of you lived here? Who knows the mountain the best?” Hermione asked. The versions of the books, that she’d read were never quite clear. Yes, Thorin was mentioned in Smaug's attack, but was anyone else present?

“Myself and Balin were the only ones in my Company that knew Erebor but Balin was only [ten](according%20to%20Tolkien) when Smaug came.” Thorin answered.

“I remember little of the mountain, the panicked leaving, yes, but not the mountain itself.” Balin added.

“Then Thorin is in the recon team.” Headley said. “Anyone disagree? No? Good. Next…?”

“Getting to the treasury.” Thorin said. “That’s where the beast is likely to be, nesting in the gold and gems of our people.”

“Right. Getting there…?” Headley asked. “What do we need to know about that?”

“Instabilities and traps.” Bofur replied. “Flying means we’re not as concerned about walkways and the like, but ceilings could come down if the dragon has damaged the support columns.”

“Then there’s the chance of magical traps. We don’t know if this dragon can do magic or if it is magical at all.” Charlie said.

“How do we keep the dragon from knowing that someone has entered the mountain?” Torvold asked.

“Concealment charms.” Fred replied. “Disillusionment charms.”

“Scent removal charms.” George added.

“Silencing charms.” Fred added.

“And link them together so that each member of the team can see and hear the others, but the dragon can’t.” Bill finished.

“Back to access.” Headley rapped a rock on the table to get people’s attention. “Thank you. Access. Traps. Stability. Who do we need for that?”

“Thorin for access and pathfinding. Thorin? How are you with reading the stability of stone?” Natalie had forgotten that she was nervous, now she was just doing her job.

“Good. Not great, but good. Bofur’s better, but I can keep us away from the worst of it.” Thorin answered.

“For a recon, that’s all we need. Once the dragon is no longer an issue, we can look as shoring up the mountain properly, but first we need to get that oversized lizard out.” Dwalin countered.

“Agreed.” Thorin nodded.

“Right, so Thorin’s all we need as far as access, pathfinding and structural assessment for the recon.” Headley hummed. “So, next is… traps. Magical and physical.”

“That would be Bill, then.” George said.

“He’s a curse-breaker…” Fred added. “He has to get into a site…”

“… before he can assess the curses and break them.” George finished.

“And he has a small amount of dragon experience, too.” Luna smiled at the tall redhead.

“Okay, Bill for traps. Any objections?” Headley asked. No-one answered and most shook their heads. “Right. The dragon, itself.”

“Charlie.” Harry, Bill, Fred, George and McGonagall all spoke at the same time.

“We need Charlie in there to assess the dragon. Its size, strength, weight, intelligence and any weaknesses.” Bill went on.

“Agreed.” Thorin and Legolas had viewed some of Charlie's memories and both of them were confident that the handler knew what he was about.

“Harry.” Charlie added. “Harry’s the only one with flying experience in combat with a dragon. We might need that, hopefully not, but it's something we can't rule out. We’ve no idea if the dragon is magical, if it is, it might be able to sense us. Then again, snakes can detect heat signatures, we don’t know if this dragon can do the same. It might be asleep, or it could be awake, if it is, how aggressive the dragon is likely to be? We don’t know.”

“Given that… I think we need to take quidditch brooms, not modified brooms.” Bill said.

“We may need the manoeuvrability.” Thorin agreed.

“I have a thought in regard to the concealment charms.” Snape interjected.

“Yes, Professor?” Headley asked.

“Those entering the mountain are going to need their magical reserves to be at their peak. I believe that the charms should be cast on them, instead of them casting for themselves. I’ve been working on a core boosting potion, that I am confident will open the cores of the younger dwarves, however, I’m not so certain how the more mature dwarves’ cores will react.” Snape said.

“If my Company wish, they may take your booster, but I shan’t until the dragon is no longer a threat to my people.” Thorin declared. “I cannot risk a negative reaction in such dire times.”

“Nor can we risk accidental magic outbursts, Severus.” McGonagall added.

“I am aware, and I agree, but I felt that I needed to alert you to the option.” Snape nodded.

“Thank you, Professor Snape. Once the dragon is done, I’ll take your booster.” Ori said. “I want to keep flying…” The last sentence was whispered with a smile.

“Back on track…” Headley dragged them back to the dragon. “Let’s see what we have… Quidditch brooms instead of modified brooms. The recon team will be Thorin, Charlie, Bill and Harry. Anyone else that we feel needs to be on that team and why?” There was a lot of humming and a few thoughtful faces before most heads were shaken. “Alright. What preparation will the recon team need? Miss Sissy?”

“I’d suggest a decent meal this evening and a small dose of Dreamless Sleep™ to ensure a restful night’s sleep.” Narcissa replied.

“If Hermione and Garrick were to bond a few more crystals to Thorin, Harry could charge them up this evening.” Remus offered. “Then in the morning… or whenever they are ready to leave… someone takes them directly to the mountain, via a carpet, they’ll all be at highest magical levels we can get them to.”

“Oh, they should also take a Pepper-Up, too.” Sirius said. “And maybe a standard core booster for the magicals?”

“Anything else to add?” Headley asked and more heads were shaken. “Right. What if the dragon is dead? What do we need to do then?”

“I think we should leave the ‘what do we do if it’s alive or dead’ until we know.” Draco said. “I’m more concerned about what do we do if the dragon is alive decides to follow them out of the mountain?”

There were a number of wide-eyed looks and a few blank faces.

“Ugh…” Headley grunted.

“Charlie? Can we set up a perimeter like the dragon preserves?” Fred asked.

“Wards like you had in Romania?” George added.

“Can you do that, here? Or is it something that takes time to create?” Remus asked.

“It takes time, not much, only about half an hour but it requires a crap-load of power” Charlie warned.

“Could we use the booster crystals?” Hermione asked. “Even if we leave Thorin’s alone, there’s at least fifty crystals bonded to people and another hundred or so in the infirmary ready to use. If we charged all the crystals this evening and took Pepper-Up’s in the morning, we could have… each of the adult witches or wizards with three or four crystals and each of the elves and dwarves with three. Would we have enough power, then?”

Charlie tilted his head in thought. “If we classified each crystal as… hmm… two crystals equalling one person, that would give us…”

“One hundred and six and a half.” Hermione provided quickly. “If we used every adult, bar those in the recon team.”

“But that leaves us with no reserves, if the wards aren’t enough to hold the beast in.” Dwalin warned.

“True.” Snape hummed. “Take Narcissa out, we’ll need medical observation. And Fleur is pregnant, she should also be omitted, the risk to an unborn child is too great.”

“Ah… Better leave me out, too, then.” Sirius’ grimaced comment brought a flurry of startled comments. Harry leant back and laughed, while the elves and the dwarves just looked confused.

“I’ll explain later.” Narcissa said and shook her head at Sirius. “Really, Siri? Already? If you’re not careful, you’re going to end up with more children then Bedivere and Ellwood Weasley.”

“I’m fine with that.” Sirius grinned. Through all this Remus hid his red face in Teddy’s hair.

“Wards for the dragon.” Headley dragged them back on subject, yet again. “Miss Sissy can explain this to those of us that don’t understand, later. Right now we need to deal with the dragon!” Headley snapped and a few people winced. “Thank you. Bill, Charlie? How many people do you need to triple the wards that the Romanian preserve had?”

“Thirteen people set the preserves wards. If I had thirteen magicals, who each had seven crystals? I think that would be enough and it would give us a few magicals as backup, just in case things go pear-shaped.”

“How big of an area, are you thinking of?” Bill asked.

“Each compound in Romania was twenty-one miles squared.” Charlie replied. “Here, I think we’d get a better result if we stuck to a thirteen-mile radius from the peak of the mountain… The arithmantic equation would be stronger and when that’s backed by a coven of thirteen? Nine witches, three wizards and lead by a carrier. Yeah, much stronger.”

“But… That would mean… we’d need another carrier.” Hermione objected.

“Yeah, we would. To get the strongest results, yes, we’d need another carrier.” Charlie turned to Narcissa. “Have we got one?”

Narcissa didn’t answer, she just looked around the pavilion and met each person’s eye as she went. Some minutely nodded and she sat back.

“Yes, we do. Please remember that twenty percent of men are carriers, that’s one in five.” Narcissa said. “And their orientation has no bearing on whether they are carriers or not, neither does heritage, it’s just luck of the draw. Magic decides, where magic decides.” She glanced around again. “Each of them have acknowledged their consent for me to divulge their names. Sirius, of course, is already pregnant. The others are Harry, Draco, Oliver, Seamus, Headley and Garrick. Magically, Harry is definitely the strongest, but he’s on the recon team, so we can eliminate him from consideration. I would say that… Draco and Oliver are fairly evenly matched, as far as magical strength is concerned, so either would work. Draco does have the advantage of having been involved in warding rituals in the past. However, I am unsure if Oliver has that experience.” She looked to Oliver and he shook his head.

“No, I haven’t. I studied them for my NEWT’s but that was for Arithmancy and there was no practical involved.” Oliver shrugged.

“I’d be prepared to participate.” Draco shrugged. “But perhaps Oliver, Bill and Charlie could give me and the rest of the coven a refresher on what they see being involved?”

Oliver exchanged looks with Bill and Charlie and nodded. “We can do that.”

“Great.” Headley grinned. “Who’s the rest of the coven?”

“Draco should decide that, the more comfortable he is with them, the better the result will be.” Bill said. “Draco?”

“Padma, Parvati and Lavender.” Draco answered. “Mione, Alice and Minerva. Katie, Alicia and Angelina. And… Fred, George and Severus.”


	25. Chapter 25

_“Great.” Headley grinned. “Who’s the rest of the coven?”_

_“Draco should decide that, the more comfortable he is with them, the better the result will be.” Bill said. “Draco?”_

_“Padma, Parvati and Lavender.” Draco answered. “Mione, Alice and Minerva. Katie, Alicia and Angelina. And… Fred, George and Severus.”_

Charlie watched closely as Draco lead his selected coven in the ritual that would create the wards that they all hoped would keep the dragon within the confines of the mountain and its surrounding area. The younger blonde nodded at him as each member of the coven laid the rune-stone that marked a boundary point. When the last stone was laid and the ward activated, Charlie and Remus came forward and Charlie watched again, this time as Remus tested the wards, then Euan approached on a carpet. The young sandy haired boy gave them a smile and waited until the two older wizards had settled themselves onto the carpet before heading for the nearest boundary, just below Ravenshill.

There, Remus recast the diagnosis charms that Bill and Charlie had taught him and read the smoky words that appeared in the air.

“Good?” He asked Charlie.

“Yeah, good. That would keep in a dozen or more Horntails and we all know, they’re the most aggressive.” Charlie replied.

“Excellent. Let’s get you back to Dale and get your four on your way. The morning’s passing and the days are getting shorter here, just like autumn in Scotland.” Remus clapped Euan on the shoulder, gently. “Take us back, please, Euan.” He gave his stepson a smile.

“Harry!” Headley yelled and ran to his brother.

“Headley?” Harry’s arms encircled the young boy. “Headley, what’s wrong?” He curled over the sobbing child.

“I d-don’t want y-you to g-get h-hurt…” Headley answered, brokenly. How far he'd come since Dudley's 'Harry Hunting' days.

“Oh, Headley.” Harry pulled the boy closer and whispered in his ear. “You’ve watched me in the gauntlets, you’ve watched me in classes, and you’ve watched me play quidditch. Do you really think that any silly old dragon can hurt me? And you really think I’d let Charlie or Bill or Thorin get hurt?”

“No… no.” Headley took a couple of shuddering breaths.

“No. But if it will make you feel better, we’re only going to look today. We just need to know how to get to the dragon, if it’s alive and if it’s impervious to magic. That’s it, Headley, nothing else.”

“Im-impervious?” Headley whispered back.

“In this case, can magic affect it or is it immune?” Harry wasn’t the walking encyclopedia that Hermione was, but he’d paid attention enough of her lectures, over the years to be able to answer.

“What have yo-”

“Headley.” Harry pulled the boy away from his waist. “You know exactly what we have planned. Stop stalling.” Headley’s chin wobbled but he nodded and trudged back to Dennis and Colin, who wrapped their arms around the younger boy. “Thanks guys.” Harry gave them a smile. “Who’s our chauffeur?”

“That would be me.” Euan waved.

“Great. Let’s get this done.” Harry turned to the three other recon riders. “Everyone got their broom?” The three nodded, holding up a broom. “Got a backup broom?” More nods and hands went to the broom shrunken and tided to a leather thong around their necks. “Thorin? Got your extra crystals?” Thorin nodded but said nothing, his face tight and grim. “Bill, Charlie? Have you taken the core boosters and got your Pepper-Ups ready?” The two wizards nodded. “Brilliant. Severus? May I have my Pepper-Up?” He held out a hand to the potions Master, who gave him a strained smile and carefully laid a small phial in his hand. “Thanks. Who’s doing the charms?”

“Alice will be.” Frank spoke, as Alice came forward. “She had the highest charms NEWT score in fifty years, beat your mother by half a point and considering that James boasted that Lily had a perfect score…?”

“Lils scored one-hundred-and-two-point-one percent.” Sirius smirked. “Trounced James’ seventy-nine-point-six percent.”

“And my ninety-four-point-three percent, too.” Remus nodded.

“And my ninety-seven-point-nine percent.” Severus agreed.

“How’s Hermione going to stand up against that?” Charlie whispered in Harry’s ear, Harry pretended that he hadn’t heard a thing and concentrated on Alice.

Alice had the five males set themselves up on the carpet, before she began to cast. Two minutes passed before she nodded and stepped back, giving them a smile.

“That should hold for about an hour. I did add a tie-back to me, so that I can see you to dismiss it earlier if need be.” She said. “And I’ll be up on the ramparts to watch for your return. Don’t take too long, please?”

“We shan’t, Aunt Alice.” Harry gave her a grin and nodded to Euan. “Thorin’s in charge of directions, he’ll point out where to go. As soon as we’re off the carpet, you head back to the others, don’t wait on us. Got it?”

“Got it.” Euan nodded.

The two miles of open ground between Dale and the Gates of Erebor was covered quickly and quietly, each person deep in their own thoughts. Thorin’s heart was weeping with the knowledge that so many of his people were still entombed in the mountain, so many had not escaped the dragon’s wrath. Bill’s thoughts were focused on the various traps that the animals that lived in such places, created and how to get around them. Charlie was running though some of his experiences with Horntails and speculating on, if they had been worse, what would he have done. Harry was thinking about the potion in his pocket and how it could react to dragon. He, Severus, Sirius and the twins had spent a few hours each day since meeting Thorin, perfecting the potion, it **_should_** , when poured out above the dragon, form a mist that would descend and settle on the beast, before changing colour. It worked on a red/blue scale, the more red there was, the less magic would affect the beast, the more blue, the more vulnerable it was.

“Harry?” Thorin asked, as the carpet rose beside the battlements around the gate. “Did I not hear Lady Hermione described as the brightest witch of her age?”

“You did.” Harry popped the top on the phial of Pepper-Up and swallowed it down, waiting while the steam billowed from his ears and nose.

“If that were the case, why was she not the one to cast upon us?” Thorin pointed Euan towards the giant statue to the right of the gate. “Over there, behind the statue and up the mountain, I shall direct you as we get closer.

“She’s good at charms, but not **_that_** good.” Harry answered Thorin’s question. “Plus, neither Hermione nor I… nor a few of the others, actually sat our graduating exams. The war got in the way. I understand that Professor McGonagall has the required examinations from the WEA and wants us to sit them, but we all agreed to put that off until Erebor is secure.”

“Ah. I see.” Thorin nodded.

“War gets in the way of many things.” Remus said.

“It does.” Thorin nodded, again. “More that way, Euan.” He pointed further around the mountain from the gate. “See the small garden ledge, there?”

“I see it.” Euan grinned and gently manoeuvred the carpet into place. “Here?”

“Yes, here is good. William? Do you detect anything?” Thorin pointed to a set of doors with shattered glass panels. “Can you remove those? Quietly?”

“I can.” Bill nodded. “[ _Evanesco_](Vanishing%20charm).” The word was whispered, and the doors dissolved into nothingness.

“We’re going to have to take a slightly circuitous route for a bit, Charles says that there is a possibility that the beast may detect a new air flow if we were to simply remove all the doors in our path.” Thorin said.

“Plus, removing the doors means that we’ll have to conjure replacements, later. If they’re still there, we should be able to use a high powered _reparo_ on them.” Charlie gave his older brother a grin.

“Fingers crossed.” Bill answered. “Conjuring was never my strongest spell-set.” He turned to Thorin. “Which way now?”

“Second door to the left.” Thorin answered. “These can be opened, my rooms opened from the Royal Wing to the Citadel Guard’s office, via a set of hidden doors and a secret corridor. I recall telling my father, after we left the mountain, that if mother had closed her doors, as I had, she would not have survived, it would have taken too long to open them, before her escape.” As he spoke Thorin lead them to a set of doors that had an odd geometric symbol embossed on them. “My Sigil.” He told them. “Each dwarf-child is given a unique symbol, we use it as a personal sigil. For a maker’s mark on our work, to adorn our weapons, as a seal on letters and as an identifier for our possessions.”

“Handy.” Charlie nodded.

“Yes.” Bill agreed. “We might want to adopt a similar idea.”

Neither Thorin nor Harry commented on the idea, but both nodded. Thorin lead them through an extremely dusty set of rooms, where most things were still in a fair condition. Some of the fabrics had begun to breakdown, but most of the timber furniture was still standing, how stable it was, was something to think about at a later time. The three wizards followed Thorin into a narrow corridor that felt more like a tunnel than a hallway, and down a flight of stairs, before stopping at a blank expanse of wall.

“If we were to follow the tunnel onwards, it would lead to the Citadel Guard’s main office, but if we exit here, we’ll have access to one of the Royal viewing platforms. With brooms, we’ll be able to fly down to the public areas and through to the treasury. I would assume, that would be where the beast has created a den for itself.” Thorin pressed a half-hidden cartouche on the wall and a section of the wall cracked open.

Bill cast a lubricating charm, while Charlie cast a silencing charm before the two nodded to Thorin. The dwarf nodded back and carefully slid from his broom to the floor and gently pushed until the door was wide enough for them to pass through it. On the other side he pushed until the door slid closed and remounted his broom.

“I’ll be able to open that on our way out, assuming that we return this way and are not being chased by the beast.” Thorin said in reply to Charlie's raised brow.

Charlie nodded and moved to one side, letting Thorin come forward to be alongside Bill. The two exchanged looks and Thorin lead them over the edge of the balustrade and into a massive cavern that was at least a mile from floor to ceiling and possibly three or more across. Then there were a series of stairs and tall arched doorways, before Thorin spoke.

“We are here. This next doorway is the entrance to the treasury. You can see where the beast has clawed at the frame to make the entrance large enough for its body.” He pointed massive gouges in the broken stones that surrounded an irregular hole in the wall.

“Good.” Bill grunted. “So far, I’ve found nothing, trap-wise. Not to say there aren’t any, there might be, but I haven’t found any, yet. Certainly nothing magical.”

“Neither have I found any significant flaws in the stone, or rather none that are structurally unsound. There was a major flaw, a few halls back, but it was structurally stable and in use as an access between levels for the kitchen staff.” Thorin agreed.

“Great. Let’s get in there and check out this dragon.” Harry spoke for the first time since entering the mountain.

“In and straight up.” Charlie said. “Stay close to the wall and head for the ceiling. I need to see as much of the dragon in one go, as I can, and for that I need height. Go slow, try not to create too much in the way of air disturbances or bump into anything. No quick movements unless the beast challenges us.”

Bill nodded and eased his broom forward slowly before beginning to rise just as slowly. Thorin waited for a count of thirty and followed the curse-breaker. Another half minute and Charlie passed through the ragged hole. Harry took a few breaths and joined them. The four rose slowly towards the ceiling, keeping close to the wall and gently moving out and away from any protruding lantern holders. When they came to a halt, Charlie turned his attention to the treasury floor.

“Whoa…” He gasped explosively.

“Uh-huh…” Bill agreed.

“Holy shite…” Harry whispered.

“There, to the left. See? The beast’s head.” Thorin pointed and Charlie shook his head and dragged his attention back to the reason they were there.

“I can feel the magic here, the malevolence is biting.” Bill warned them. “The infection is… it’s deeper than I expected. This… this is going to take a massive effort to cleanse. No-one gets to handle anything until I clear it. Hmm…” Bill tilted his head and frowned. “There’s a physical infection, too, not just a magical one. We’ll need a huge dose of disinfectant and I think I have a potion recipe that might disable some of the lighter cursed items.”

“How?” Harry asked.

“If it works, it disconnects the curse from the item and creates a type of shield around the item, that blocks the curse from reattaching to the item. Problem is, it only lasts for twelve hours.” Bill answered.

“Talk to Snape. He might be able to increase either the strength or the duration.” Harry directed.

“Uh, guys…?” Charlie interrupted. “The dragon is alive and awake. It’s not sensing us, not yet, but the longer we stay here the higher the risk. Harry, you’re the one with that detection potion. Get it out.”

“Uh-huh.” Harry grunted and steadied his broom before delving into his pocket for the magic detection potion.

Once it was out, he lifted it to his mouth and closed his teeth around the stopper, then passed the phial to his other hand and let his wand fall into his hand. A flick and the phial rose into the air, he had thirty seconds before the contents went aerosol, he had to get it in exactly the right position for the aerosolised potion to fall on the dragon. It took twenty-two seconds before the phial halted and that was only because the dragon raised its head.

The massive head lifted from its nest, coins raining down from it, the nostrils flaring and drawing in great gusts of air. Perfectly positioned for a mist of super-fine droplets of potion to settle on its scales. The nostrils twitched and the beast snorted, but by then it was too late, the potion had made contact and begun to react.

A blush of colour seeped across the dragon’s head, tinting the beast’s scales from a rich red/copper through a deep purple, to a rich blue before finally settling on a pale icy blue. The head rose higher as the colour bled from the dragon’s head, down its neck and along the body. While the changes were visible to the four broom-riders, the dragon wouldn’t be able to see the potion’s effect on its body, but it could feel the wash of magic over its scales and it wasn’t pleased.

“Time to go.” Charlie whispered. “Move slow, unless the dragon attempts to follow. If it does, Thorin, you’re the lead, get us out as fast as possible.”

“This way.” Thorin lead them to a small hole, high in the wall of the treasury’s wall. “This leads to my grandfather’s office… _**my**_ office, now, I suppose.” He sighed. “We can get from there to the main hall and we can fly up to the windows or out the main gates, depending on whether the path is blocked.” As they flew, Bill stayed at Thorin’s left flank, while Charlie stayed to the right and Harry was to their rear.

“Try the main gates, first.” Harry called, keeping a watchful eye out behind them, for any sign that the dragon was on the move. Thankfully, there was nothing.

“We need to go up a few move levels for the main gates.” Thorin warned and began to encourage his broom to climb. “Left, here.” He called a few minutes later. “The main gates are blocked, but if we go up a few more levels, the guard stations open out onto the battlements above the gates. The only door would be within the guard tower and Smaug is too large to get in and close them, they should be open.”

“Lead the way.” Bill nodded and Thorin swung his broom to the right and up a small flight of stairs, into a large room and immediately turned right and out another door and up another flight of stairs. They emerged onto a narrow walkway that looked out over the valley towards Dale.

“Great. Let’s get back to Dale and work out what we’re going to do.” Harry said as he nudged his broom out over the battlements.

Once the four were a hundred yards from the mountain, Charlie grinned at his brother. “Last one back, gets to do the briefing.” Charlie yelled over his shoulder and pushed his broom to racing speeds.

“Oi!” Bill yelled. “No fair.” And went after him.

“Oh, boy…” Harry sighed.

“Tis obvious that they are brothers, Harry.” Thorin laughed.

“Isn’t it, just?” Harry snorted. “Shall we join them?”

“Not I.” Thorin disagreed. “This broom is not my preferred choice, I shall not push my limited experience, unless I have no other choice.”

“Fair enough.” Harry nodded and the pair continued their sedate trip back to the ruined city.

Back in the Nest’s pavilion, Harry sat with Thorin, Bill and Charlie on the pavilion’s raised platform and addressed the gathering. Elves and dwarves sat intermingled with the Hogwarts refugees, all of them focused on the four as they spoke.

“So, Bill’s got a recipe for a potion that will create a type of shield between the dragon’s curses and the treasure, the stones of the buildings and whatever else it may have come in contact with. If Severus, Draco and the twins would work with him to make some, that would be handy.” Harry ended the briefing.

“We have agreed to return the White Gems of Las Galen to Thranduil, along with the item that he had commissioned.” Thorin added. “If it’s not complete, I would request that a message is sent to him, to determine if he would prefer the gems returned as is, or if he wishes the commission to be completed. Either way, the gems have to be treated before they can leave, we cannot risk the dragon’s infection spreading, it would have dire consequences for any who came in contact with it.”

“Very true.” Harry nodded. “And there seems to be a physical element to the… infection, so we’re going to need antibacterial or disinfectant potions and cleansing potions, too. Professor Snape? All of us… except perhaps me, Headley and Seamus… are capable of brewing most of the basic potions. Can you set up some type of roster so that everyone can help with the less complicated potions?”

“That I can do, however, as you stated, there are some who I do not feel capable of brewing the necessary potions, but they care more than capable of ingredient preparation.” Snape nodded. “With some minor instruction, I believe that even our elven and dwarven allies can participate in preparing the ingredients for the brewers. Yourself, young Headley, Mr Finnigan, Mr Woods, both Mr’s Longbottom and Miss Brown, shall be among those not brewing. Garrick, I don’t know your skills, so would prefer that you join them. Mrs Weasley and the mutt will do neither, some of the ingredients are harmful to those gestating, I would not risk their pregnancies, especially when we have many that can stand in their stead.”

“I agree.” Narcissa nodded. “I’d also recommend that Hermione not participate, unless we can confirm a lack of pregnancy.” At Hermione’s flush and Draco’s squawk, she elaborated. “You are technically still on your honeymoon, a pregnancy often occurs during this time and the ingredients can cause dreadful damage to an unborn child. Do no risk it.” Hermione pouted but with Draco’s urging, she settled back in her seat and nodded. “Thank you, dear. We shan’t be idle. We have sixty-four people to feed and while there are four of us, that is still a mammoth task.”

“Why don’t those of us that we know are not… safe… in a potions lab… why don’t we work with Miss Sissy and see to food?” Harry asked. “That would give her ten of us, surely ten can make enough food for all of us?”

“I’ll help there, too.” Bilbo waved an arm.

“And Bifur and me.” Bombur waved his ever-present ladle.

“Have either of you worked in a large kitchen?” Narcissa asked.

“Yes, ma'am.” Both replied.

“How many did you feed, on an average day?” The medi-witch then asked.

“Twenty to forty.” Bombur replied. “But I was only ever, second in charge.”

“I took over running the kitchens for Took family gatherings, after my mother died. We usually had between one hundred and fifty, and two hundred at a sitting.” Bilbo added.

“Excellent, Master Baggins. Will you take on the management of our communal kitchens?” Narcissa asked.

“Are you sure? I mean, I will, if you really want me to, but… are you sure?” Bilbo stammered.

“I am, Master Baggins.” Narcissa nodded. “If we’re going to feed everyone from the one kitchen, we need someone to manage it and Minerva, with her experience as Deputy Headmistress, is the closest that we have to a manager, but managing a school is considerably different from managing a kitchen.”

“It is, and I’ve little kitchen experience at all, I must admit that I let Hogwarts’ house-elves handle that for themselves.” Minerva said.

“In that case…?” Bilbo nodded. “Yes, I’ll manage the kitchen.”

“Brilliant.” Harry clapped and startled a number of people. “That’s sorted. Professor Snape’s in charge of the potions lab and Bilbo’s in charge of the kitchen. It’s almost ten-thirty, let’s split into our teams and let our managers work out what we need to do and where to put us. Bilbo? If we break for lunch at twelve, is that enough time for your team to make up enough for all of us?”

“Certainly. It might only be rolls or sandwiches, but there’ll be enough for everyone.” Bilbo waved his hands.

“Very good, we shall leave you and your helpers in peace.” Snape stood. “Everyone else? If you would follow me, we can determine who is doing what task to ensure that we can start as soon as ingredients are prepared.” He made his way from the pavilion to the path. “This way, if you please.”


	26. Chapter 26

_“Brilliant.” Harry clapped and startled a number of people. “That’s sorted. Professor Snape’s in charge of the potions lab and Bilbo’s in charge of the kitchen. It’s almost ten-thirty, let’s split into our teams and let our managers work out what we need to do and where to put us. Bilbo? If we break for lunch at twelve, is that enough time for your team to make up enough for all of us?”_

_“Certainly. It might only be rolls or sandwiches, but there’ll be enough for everyone.” Bilbo waved his hands._

_“Very good, we shall leave you and your helpers in peace.” Snape stood. “Everyone else? If you would follow me, we can determine who is doing what task to ensure that we can start as soon as ingredients are prepared.” He made his way from the pavilion to the path. “This way, if you please.”_

Harry nodded to Charlie and turned to look at Thorin. “Ready to do this?” He asked.

Charlie said nothing but nodded.

“I am.” Thorin replied.

“Toss it.” Harry told Charlie.

“Right.” Charlie grunted as he threw a bundle of unsealed phials into the air. It sailed high and began to fall, but Charlie had drawn his wand and with a flick and a wish learnt in first year, he levitated the bundle into the middle of the massive treasury chamber. “Ready when you are.”

“How significant is this explosion going to be, Harry?” Thorin asked.

“It’s going to be big but we’ve enough time to get out of the chamber.” Harry replied.

“Will it damage anything? The walls? The cavern? The stonework?” Thorin asked.

“Don’t think so. It’s only supposed to impact as a liquid, on non-cursed solid surfaces, so they should all be fine.” Harry grimaced.

“But you’re not certain?” Thorin raised a brow.

“Personally, no.” Harry shook his head. “In the past, we’ve been told that some of these potions react badly to others, but I don’t know what is meant by ‘badly’, none of the textbooks said. I think this is going to be violent, not physically, but the chemical and magical reactions.”

“That is why you insisted that we work from here and not venture further into the chamber?” Thorin phrased it more as a statement than as a question.

“It is.” Harry nodded.

“Oh, great.” Charlie muttered. “We’re stuck inside a cave with no idea how explosive these potions are going to be. Alright. Harry? Grab a hold of Thorin, if we need to apparate out, we won’t have much notice.”

Harry blinked. “Right, I can do that.” And nudged his broom a little closer to Thorin, reaching out a hand and laying it on the dwarf’s arm. “Ready?”

Charlie exchanged glances with Thorin. “Ready as we’re going to get.” The redhead sighed.

“ _Bombarda_.” Harry whispered, putting a carefully limited amount of power behind the exploding charm, knowing that the phials were going to explode.

But even so, he wasn’t ready for the result. The phials, and the straps holding them together, were vaporised, and while that was sort of the intent, the reaction was way more powerful than expected. The potions mixed and clashed, this one burning into that one, this one boosting that one, this one sparking off of that one causing the next one to ignite and suddenly….

The chamber began to fill. A shimmering pale iridescent blue foam bubbled from nowhere, quickly filling the space.

The dragon’s head rose, and it screamed, words may have been there but they were unrecognisable, it was more a scream of unarticulated rage. It rose from the mounds of coin and flew into the air, attacking the foam with fire.

“Oops.” Harry winced as a tongue of flame touched the foam and the foam seemed to just race along the flame like… a flame along an oiled path. The foam reached the dragon’s mouth and the dragon coughed spluttering, wrenching its head away from the foam. If turned from the foam and made for the chamber’s entrance.

But it wasn’t fast enough. The foam was engulfing the chamber, rapidly.

“Out!” Charlie yelled. “Out! Go!”

Harry and Thorin dragged their eyes from the chaos in front of them and darted through chamber’s entrance, Charlie’s frantic voice breaking through their shocked fascination. They twisted and turned, rising and dipping to avoid the walkways and stairs that rose in front of them. The foam was moving fast but the three broom-riders were faster, they reached the main entrance chamber to the mountain with no initial sign of the foam following them.

But the dragon was.

It burst through the wall, screaming in rage. Harry made out few words, ‘fire’, ‘death’, ‘burn’, but mostly it just screamed. As it went through the wall the massive tapestry began to fall, it tangled around the dragon and slowed its progress into the hall.

“We have to stop it.” He yelled to Thorin and Charlie.

“Let it go.” Thorin disagreed.

“No!” Charlie yelled. “We can’t.”

“Why not?” Thorin wanted to know.

“The wards will keep it around the mountain.” Charlie reminded him.

“And Dale is within those wards.” Harry added.

Thorin’s eyes widened and he screamed. “Stop it! Stop it!” The thought of losing those in Dale, was extremely painful. Thorin knew that if it were to happen, it would destroy him.

“Harry! Parseltongue, cast in parseltongue, before it reaches the gate.” Charlie yelled.

 ** _§ STUPIFY! §_** Harry yelled in parseltongue, pumping as much power as he could behind the charm.

The dragon’s scream cut off so suddenly that the silence was nearly deafening. A count of three and the dragon began to fall. To Harry, it seemed like it fell in slow-motion, the beast’s tail hitting the great chamber’s floor, followed by its body and neck, then its head and lastly its wings.

“Look out!” Thorin yelled at the same time as the dragon’s head hit the tiles. “The foam!”

“We have to deal with the dragon, now.” Charlie said.

“It’s a dragon.” Thorin said. “Leave it.”

“The charm will eventually wear off, we have to take it with us, if we don’t, we’ll be back in the same position, later.” Charlie argued.

“So, what do we do?” The dwarf asked.

“Whatever it is, we have to do it fast.” Charlie replied. “The foam is covering it, if we don’t act, we might lose sight of the beast.” He pointed to where foam had reached the dragon and was rapidly filling the chamber, engulfing the dragon as it went.

 ** _“§_** ** _REDUCIO §”_** Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the dragon and watching as it shrank from sight, foam covering it. “ _Accio dragon.”_ He held out a hand and prayed that the foam would not block the charm. It seemed like an inordinate amount of time before his seeker-trained eyes picked up movement. “What the hell…?” He frowned as a bright fluorescent yellow object flew towards him. His hand darted above his head and grabbed the object and when he brought his hand in front of him, he saw a long slender lizard with wings. “It worked!” He crowed.

“Brilliant. Cheer later. Escape now or be swallowed by foam. **_Move!_** ” Charlie ordered.

The three looked at the still coming foam and turned to face the gates at the far end of the long hall.

“We don’t have time to go through the guard station.” Charlie warned. “Thorin’s not experienced enough to take the turns at the speed we need to, to get out.”

“Then there is only one thing to do.” Thorin sighed and let his broom float towards the floor.

“Fuck that!” Harry snarled. “Get your ass back up here, dwarf! Leave the exit to me.” He pointed his wand at Thorin’s leg and sent off a stinging hex, when Thorin didn't move fast enough for his liking. “Move!”

“Argh!” Thorin screeched but one look at Harry’s face and he knew the young wizard was not giving him an option. His broom rose and followed Harry’s order towards the gate.

When they were about fifty yards from the gate, Harry cast a high-powered blasting hex at the rubble blocking the gates. **_“_** ** _§_** ** _DEPRIMO. §”_** Harry didn’t even slow down and as the rubble burst away from the point that his hex impacted, he just cast again. “[ _Protego Duo_.](2nd%20Level%20shield%20charm)” This time he used a more common shield charm taught at Hogwarts for NEWTs, spoken in the traditional Latin. The three riders burst through the cloud of rubble dust and into clean air, they didn’t slow down, though, they kept their brooms pointed at Dale and Harry waved Charlie on. “Go, warn them. I’ve barely got enough strength to keep my broom aloft for long enough to reach Dale, anything else is out of the question. Go.”

“I shall stay with him. Go.” Thorin said.

“Thanks.” Charlie nodded and encouraged his broom to its maximum speed.

“What is it, that you hold, Harry?” Thorin asked.

“This?” Harry replied tiredly, holding up a hand.

“Yes, that. What is it?”

“I think it’s the dragon.” Harry answered.

“The dragon? But it's… It’s yellow…” Thorin grimaced in distaste.

“I think the foam did that, but I’m not sure. It could just be how it was always going to react to our type of magic.” Harry explained.

“Is it dead or just unconscious?”

“Just unconscious. I don’t know how long it will stay that way, I hope it’s long enough for Charlie to make up a rune-cage for it.”

“And what of its new size? How long do you think that will remain?” Thorin asked, trying to keep Harry awake.

“I did that in parseltongue, with as much power as I could, so… a while. Maybe a few days.” Harry shrugged and his broom dropped lower. “Shite, I’m losing power fast. Thorin, I’m going to pass out soon. Tell Charlie to drop the bloody thing into stasis, I can deal with it when I wake up.” Harry’s broom stuttered and faltered. “I’m done.” Harry whispered and slid sideways from his broom.

Thorin lurched towards him and strong arms grasped at the wizard. “I have you, my friend, I have you. Just rest.”

“…” Harry made an unidentifiable sound and surrendered to the indignity of being manhandled.

“Oh, my word…” Narcissa’s voice made Harry look up but it wasn’t him she was looking at. He turned in the direction she **_was_** looking.

“Oh…” Was all he said.

“Was that supposed to happen, pup?” Sirius landed beside them.

“I don’t think it was **_supposed_** to, but I kinda figured that **_something_** might…” Harry whispered, the lack of a pull on his magic by a broom, letting him stay conscious for a little longer.

“What happened to him?” Narcissa went into her professional mode.

Thorin lifted Harry’s hand that still held the shrunken dragon. “He stunned and then shrunk the dragon.” He replied.

“That’s the **_dragon_**?” Sirius squawked.

“It is.” Thorin nodded.

“How big was it?”

“His head was about twenty foot from snout to crest.” Charlie answered as he joined them. “Euan’s bringing a carpet.” He looked up at the mountain. “Whoa…”

Thorin turned to face the home he was hoping had survived the… Pale blue iridescent foam was bubbling out from every gate, door, window or crack in the mountain. Most of the bubbles were popping in the sunlight, but a few broke free and wafted away on the breeze.

Harry began to chuckle. “Where’s Headley? He needs to see this.” And he kept snickering to himself.

It took a few minutes before whoever had gone to fetch the boy in question, had returned. But when he did, the lad took one look at the mountain and stumbled over to Harry.

“Not my fault. Not my fault. You can’t blame me this time. Not my fault.” He chanted as he hugged his tired brother.

“Would someone like to explain?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

“When Headley was still Dudley, he tried to use a muggle washing machine.” Harry answered. “But he put in ten times the amount of laundry liquid than he needed to. The laundry flooded with foam, then the kitchen and the overflow started creeping into the dining room. The laundry and the kitchen were shoulder deep in this purple foam that stank of lavender.”

“Oh, wow, that’s… wow…” Sirius stammered. “James did that once. Lily made him clean it up by hand and took his wand off him until she was happy with his job.”

Remus snickered. “I remember that, it took him two whole days.”

“Only ‘cause he wasted a day begging and whinging for his wand. Once he realised Lily meant it, it only took him a few hours.” Sirius smirked.

“So, who do we blame this on?” Remus asked.

“Can’t blame me, Severus wouldn’t let me touch the potions.” Harry huffed.

“Too true.” Remus nodded.

“But you know Snape’s going to still try and pin the blame on you. Right?” Sirius added.

“Of course, he is. That’s why it’s so good, that he never let me work in the lab.” Harry grinned back. “Tell Charlie to put the dragon” he led up the hand holding the shrunken dragon, “into stasis. I can look to making the size change permanent, with a parseltongue password, once I wake up. And on that, I’m going to pass out, now.” And that’s exactly what he did.

When Harry woke, the world around him was just beginning to lighten, the odd ray of sunlight crept through a dense bank of clouds to the east. He was laid out on a bed in an almost intact house in Dale and had the uncomfortable sense that he was being watched, he could feel someone staring at him. He turned to his left and saw only a stone wall, but to his right he saw his family. Sirius and Remus were leaning against each other, Headley and Teddy on their laps, both boys focusing their eyes on Harry.

“Urgh…” Harry grunted, and Teddy laughed, the little boy leaning forward and reaching for Harry.

“Steady there, Teddy.” Harry blinked as Oliver swooped in, from seemingly nowhere, and slid the baby from his father’s lap and deposited him on Harry’s.

“Hey, little man.” Harry voice was quiet, but he no longer felt drained. “How long have I been out, huh?” He might have been speaking towards Teddy, but the question was directed at Oliver.

“Two days.” Oliver held out a mug of water to Harry. “Sip not gulp, please.”

Harry grinned and shifted Teddy to one side and arranged his fingers around the mug. “Hey, Headley, how you’re doing?”

“Better now that you’re awake.” The boy replied. “You had Thorin freaked out, he wasn’t sure that Miss Sissy knew what she was talking about, when she said you’d be asleep for two days.”

“If he hangs around long enough, he’ll learn.” Harry grinned.

“But it was these two that were the most panicked. Not at first, but then Miss Sissy made them read your patient file and by the time they got to the end of your second year, she had to give them calming draughts.” Oliver added. “Although, I admit, I wasn’t much better. I know I was there for your first year, but hell Harry, things got worse from there, didn’t they?”

Harry nodded. “Dementors, hippogriffs, werewolves, dragons, acromantulas, resurrections, black quills, duels, illegal guerrilla training, thestrals, ambushes, inferi, Death-Eaters, Horcruxes… Oh, yeah, significantly worse.”

“You’re lucky we love you, pup.” Remus gave him a half-hearted glare, the effect ruined by Sirius, still asleep, drooling on Remus’ shoulder.

“I know.” Harry gave his surrogate father a soft smile and smothered a laugh, when his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten in two days. “Breakfast?” He asked.

“I’ll see to it, you stay here.” Oliver ordered.

“Ta, Ollie.” Harry turned back to Remus. “What happened to the dragon? Did Charlie put it under stasis like I asked?”

“He did. We’re just waiting for you to wake before we decided what to do next.” Remus tilted his head from side to side and listened to the cracks as the tension in his muscles released. “Oh, much better…” He groaned in relief. “So, the dragon… Hermione and Garrick spent the last few days transferring all the unbonded booster crystals that were partially drained, but not fully, from one crystal to another. We now have seven fully charged, unbonded crystals, that we think you should use as your power supply when you work on the dragon, that way you’re less likely to drain your core and have to deal with magical exhaustion, again.”

“Yeah, that might help.” Harry nodded.

“And Snape figured out a way to shrink the crystals so they can be worn… Actually he come up with a… novel idea. The crystals are fully charged before shrinking and being slotted into a holster, that is a cuff that can be worn on your wrist.” Remus explained. “That way it absorbs any excess magic from you and can disperse it back as you need it.”

“Handy.” Harry nodded again.

“It’s more than just that, Mr Potter.” Narcissa said as she entered the room. “As the crystals are unbonded, anyone above a certain competency level, can use them. Garrick suggested that we reverse the flow of transfer from a crystal to a person’s core, as a way to quickly and safely deal with magical exhaustion. A few of us were hesitant to allow this but Hermione, Luna, Severus and Padma were able to provide the arithmantic equations to support the theory and Oliver stepped forward as the first test subject. Since then, we’ve tested it on both males and females of different ages and core strengths and all of them recovered within minutes.”

“Whoa…” Harry gasped.

“Indeed.” Narcissa nodded. “Hermione has most of the magical adults charging crystals that she plans to transfer to unbonded crystals for you to use. There are seven already charged and we would like to use them to restore your core levels. Even though you are awake, my scans say that your core level is less than fifty percent of what it should be. Given how badly drained you were after casting just two spells on the dragon, you’re going to need your core to be as close to full strength as you can get.”

“I know, and yeah, a boost sounds great.” Harry agreed.

“Excellent.” Narcissa scooped Teddy up and Oliver laid a tray on his lap. “You’ll want to do this before eating, it can make you nauseous and anti-nausea potions will only make it worse, as they clash with the transfer. Once the transfer is complete, the nausea settles almost instantly. You know how to push your magic into a crystal, simply hold them the same way and focus on the magical flow going from the crystal back into you. The enchantments on the crystal will encourage the reservoir to empty once a connection has been made.”

“Okay…” Harry looked at the tray and the seven glistening crystals that lay on a clean white napkin. He picked up the first crystal and concentrated, magic flooded into him, making his head swim. “Whoa, head rush…”

Two hours later, he sat in a triangle with Charlie and Remus on a carpet flown by Bill. “Are we ready to do this?”

“Ready.” Charlie answered.

“Good to go.” Bill added.

“Ready.” Remus nodded.

“Right. Hold him out.” Harry directed and Charlie held out a dragon still under stasis. “The Rune cage is ready?”

“Ready.” Remus touched the edge of a large tray with nine small rune stones on it, that formed a circle, that sat on the carpet between the three men.

Harry nodded. “Alright. Charlie? Drop the stasis.” Charlie flicked his wand in a complicated but elegant movement and the shimmer that had surrounded the dragon faded away. “Great. Drop him down into the cage.” Charlie lowered his wand and the shrunken dragon lowered with it. The dragon lay in a crumpled heap on the tray between the runestones. “Remus, activate the cage.” Remus nodded and tapped his wand against each stone, and they watched as the runes activated and tendrils of light left stone some sliding across the tray and others arching up and forming a dome above it.

“Done.” Remus huffed.

“Brilliant.” Harry’s smile was just as bright as his voice, before he focused on the dragon. “[ _Rennervate_](Reviving%20charm).” He whispered.

The dragon woke with a start and looked from one man to another.

“Thieves, intruders. You will **_burn_** …” The silky voice was slightly hissy, clearly declaring the animal’s reptilian heritage. An orange glow backlit the scales around the small beast’s chest and golden red flames burst from its mouth, but the beast was shocked, even stunned, that the flames were stopped before they reached the men. “What is this? Magic? How dare you use magic upon me, the greatest of all dragons?”

“The greatest of all dragons, you say?” Harry snorted and dropped a single coin into the rune cage.

The dragon jerked back from the coin, shock followed by horror crossing its face. “What did you do to my gold?!” It screeched.

“Nothing to the gold.” Harry laughed. “Look around, greatest of all dragons and see how insignificant you are.”

The dragon looked from the gold to the men and its eyes widened. “What did you do to me?” It whispered.

“We shrunk you.” Harry shrugged.

“Shrunk? Shrunk me! How dare you?! Unshrink me! Unshrink me, this instant!” The dragon demanded.

“No.” Harry’s casualness vanished and in its place as a hardened warrior. “No, we won’t be unshrinking you. You need to learn the repercussions of your actions. You killed people and stole their money and their lives. It’s time to accept your punishment.”

“I answer to none!” Smaug declared.

“That might have been the case before, but not anymore. Now you answer to us. Don’t you get it? If we release you… like you are right now… any bird or predator could kill you. You’re almost defenceless.”

“Nooo….” The dragon whispered. “No, no, no.”

“Yes.” Harry leant back. “So, here’s the way it’s going to happen. I’m going to knock you out, enlarge you slightly, lock it all with my magic, so that I am the only one that can release you. Then I’ll wake you up and you will have a choice to make. Once we’ve cleaned away the poison that you pumped into the mountain, you can work with Charlie, here” Charlie grinned and gave a wave, “and whoever Thorin, King Under the Mountain assigns to the treasury, to sort, clean and process the treasury’s contents. Or I will allow you to guard my personal treasury, but you will answer to me and Charlie. **_If_** … at any point you try and go against our directions, I will shrink you to the size of a gnat and keep you in a cage that I will wear as jewellery. Do you understand?”

The dragon tilted its head and growled as it thought. “What of food? Will I be fed?”

“Yes, food will be provided.”

“You will give me food and gold to sleep in?” The dragon asked.

“Gold, silver, gems and jewellery.” Harry agreed. “As well as plush velvets and fine silks. If you stay with me. If you choose the mountain’s treasury, I can’t guarantee the fabrics. The gold, silver, gems and jewellery, yes, but not fabrics.”

“Will I be allowed water to bathe in? Metal to burnish my scales? Sharpen my claws?”

“Of course.”

“Will I be allowed to fly?”

“Definitely. I love to fly and would never deprive someone of that joy.” Harry assured the dragon.

“Fly? You can fly? How?”

Harry laughed. “Magic, of course.”

“You are a wizard?”

“I am.”

“Very well, wizard. I will stay with you. I will guard your treasury and you will tend me.” The dragon permitted.

“Excellent. I am Harry, this is Charlie, Remus and Bill. Settle yourself down and I will get started.”

The dragon curled around on itself, much as a cat or dog would, and lay its wings flat along its back, its head resting on its tail. “I am ready. Begin.” Its tenseness belying its words.

“ _Stupefy_.” Harry grinned as the dragon went limp. “Release the rune cage.” Remus nodded and tapped a rune, slowly, the rune-lit dome and lines faded and once the runestones went dark, he nodded again. “Take us down, Bill.” The carpet descended and hovered a foot above the ground.

Harry flicked his wand levitated the unconscious dragon to the ground. “Lift us up… stop here. Thanks.” He glanced at Bill as the carpet halted. **_“_** ** _§[Finite Reducio](ends%20only%20shrinking%20charm). §”_** The dragon enlarged and kept enlarging until it was its original size. Here, Harry paused, lifted a crystal and let it restore his core before he began the next stage. **_“_** ** _§[REDUCIO, cincinno mutatu mihi.](shrinking%20charm%20+%20Lock%20changes%20to%20me) §”_** This time he didn’t put quick as much power behind the charm and released his magic slower, a set size clear in his mind. He wasn’t aiming for quite so small. He wanted a dragon about the size of a small dog, not something the size of an immature weasel or overgrown rat.

Once the dragon was the size he wanted, Harry picked up another crystal and let it drain into his core.

“That’s enough for today, Harry.” Remus ordered. “Charlie, you wake the… Smaug. It has a name, if Harry’s going to keep it as a pet, we had best get used to addressing Smaug by its name.” As he spoke, he lowered the carpet to a stop beside the Whippet-sized animal.

“You got it.” Charlie nodded. “ _Rennervate_.”

The dragon woke and shook its head. “I do not like that.” It said.

“Hopefully, I won’t have to do that to you again.” Harry said.

“What is to stop someone else from doing it?”

“I’ve locked the changes to my magical signature, without that, no one can change anything about you.” Harry assured the dragon.

“Good. I am… hungry. I would eat.”

“Sure, come on, hop up here and we’ll get you something to eat, then I’ll show you my treasury. Alright?” Harry patted the carpet and Smaug stood and stretched, his wings spread, and his neck rose, while his tail was pushed out behind him. Then he nodded and leapt into the air, flying in a circle before landing on the carpet and looking at Harry, closely.

“You will make a reasonable attendant.” He nodded again. “I shall stay with you.”


	27. Chapter 27

_“I’ve locked the changes to my magical signature, without that, no one can change anything about you.” Harry assured the dragon._

_“Good. I am… hungry. I would eat.”_

_“Sure, come on, hop up here and we’ll get you something to eat, then I’ll show you my treasury. Alright?” Harry patted the carpet and Smaug stood and stretched, his wings spread, and his neck rose, while his tail was pushed out behind him. Then he nodded and leapt into the air, flying in a circle before landing on the carpet and looking at Harry, closely._

_“You will make a reasonable attendant.” He nodded again. “I shall stay with you.”_

Harry turned to Thorin. “So… What do you need done next?”

Thorin raised a brow at the question and turned to look at the Gates of Erebor, smothered in shiny blue foam and then back to Harry. “Harry, my friend… Look at my mountain… and ask that again.” Thorin’s voice was tired and a little disbelieving.

Harry did as Thorin asked and sighed. “Oh…”

“Yes. Oh…” Thorin tilted his head. “What are you going to do about it?”

“ _ **ME!?**_ It wasn’t _**my**_ fault, I didn’t touch the potions. Blame Severus and the twins, _**not**_ me!” Harry squawked.

“I didn’t mean you, personally, [lulkhâ nadan](idiotic%20child), I mean ‘you’ as the leader of your people.” Thorin said but kept muttering under his breath in khuzdul.

“Oh… Okay, that makes more sense.” Harry nodded, his indignation gone. “I suppose we… umm… I think I need to talk to Severus and Bill and find out how long it takes for those potions to reach their peak efficiency. Before we make any other plans.”

“Shall I leave that in your hands, or do you require assistance?” Thorin asked.

“I got this.” Harry was already up and moving, a still yellow Smaug following him, muttering about disturbed sleep and lack of sunlit stones.

Severus had moved his house and lab from the Nest to the valley outside the crumbling walls of Dale. He’d cleared a patch of ground and placed the two wizarding buildings with their rears to the walls, looking out towards Erebor.

Harry stopped at a reasonable distance and sent a quiet Patronus message, alerting the potions Master to his presence. A second message was sent to Bill, asking him to join them.

“Potter, to what do I owe the honour?” The silken voice had a definite tone of menace to it. “I was about to start a particularly sensitive brewing.”

“I apologise for the interruption.” Harry gave a tired smile. “But Thorin raised the subject of how to empty the mountain of that foam, which made me think.”

“Dangerous ground, best not to go there.” Snape sneered.

“Don’t really have much of an option, just yet.” Harry disagreed.

“And what was this precarious foray into the delicate, and unknown to a Gryffindor, art of thinking, left you with?” The twitch of the potions Master’s lip, decried his words, he was enjoying bantering with Harry.

“How long does it take for the potions you sent with us, to reach the peak of their potency?” Harry asked.

“Peak? In what way?”

“How long before we can start to break down the foam?” Harry sighed and asked bluntly.

“Ah.” Snape nodded and sighed, too.

“And how do we do that?” Harry added.

“Ah.” Snape nodded again. “The potions we used reach their maximum peak efficiency in two hours and stay at that level for a week. As for their removal? There are two options. Spray the foam with water, distilled water, that is. Or sunlight. Either way you are going to end up with floor covered with liquid.”

“But won’t spraying with water re-ignite the ashwinder’s eggshells and the salamander blood?” Harry asked.

“Possibly, but unless you know how to create a miniature sun, it is the most feasible option.” Snape reminded him.

“Is it sunlight or ultraviolet light that causes the potions to break down?” Harry asked seriously.

Snape blinked. “I’m not certain. I know that a high powered lumos is often enough, used in a domestic environment. But a housewitch usually only uses a half cup per five gallons of water…”

“… and we used one hundred gallons of super concentrate of each of Mrs Scower’s Cleaner, the general antidote to poisons, the wiggenweld potion, the general healing potion, Gringotts’ gold clearance potion and a general antiseptic potion, with no additional water.” Harry sighed.

“Indeed.” Snape smirked.

“How would one of the twins [_Solem ingem_](sun%20fire) charms work? They use them for their hydroponics greenhouses as an additional light source for the tropical plants. We could take turns casting them into jars and levitating the jars into the different chambers.”

“Why would you be doing that?” Bill asked as he trotted down from the path between Erebor and Dale.

“Oh, Potter was undertaking something extremely unwise... thinking. His thought processes are a mystery to all who know him, usually, but in this case…?” Snape snarked.

“In this case, Severus and I are trying to work out how to remove the foam from the mountain. He says water or sunlight.” Harry went on.

“But…” Bill objected.

“Ashwinder eggshells and salamander blood?” Harry asked. “Yep, that’s what I said.”

“At which point Potter mentioned the menaces’ greenhouse charm.” Snape said.

“Hmm… or there is the [_solis_](Sun) charm, that’s what’s used in the pocket spaces to create a simulation of sunlight.” Bill offered. “It’s not as easy to control, but it’s quite easy to cast.”

“No, control is more important than ease.” Harry objected. “We’re going to be in the same space, getting sunburnt every time we cast is going to get irritating very quickly.”

“I agree.” Snape said.

“So, I guess I need to talk to the twins and get them to give a memory of casting, so that Hermione can make some training memories for the rest of us.” Harry looked from one man to the other.

“Yes, you do. I run the potions lab not the charms classroom.” Snape reminded him.

“And I’d rather deal with potions than the twins.” Bill smirked.

Harry snorted and nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Keep us informed of developments, if you please.” Snape requested.

“Will do.” Harry agreed and headed off to find the twins and his godfathers.

The next day started the two month long clean-up. First the foam had to be broken down, then the liquid had to be siphoned off using [_tergeo_](Cleaning%20charm%20that%20removes%20liquid%20from%20a%20targeted%20area) charms and processed until safe, then the stonework had to be repaired before the furniture and soft furnishings could be restored.

While the mountain was huge, the Hogwarts magicals were able to use reparo’s, renovo’s and a rebuilding charm sequence that Professor Flitwick had taught those that worked on the rebuilding of Hogwarts’ castle and outbuildings. By the first weekend in October, the first of the dwarves were able to move into the mountain.

Dori, Nori and Ori moved into an apartment close to, but inside, the royal wing, stating that while they were related to the royal family, it was distant enough that they were more comfortable living elsewhere. Fíli and Kíli moved into their Uncle Frerin’s rooms and Thorin moved back into his own rooms, he ****planned to move into the king’s suite after his coronation, until that time he was using the rooms from his childhood. And Dwalin, Balin, Oín and Gloín, moved into the suites that their parents had lived in.

The brothers Ur had yet to move into the mountain, but when they did, Bifur would return to his prior position as Thorin’s personal valet, while Bombur and Bofur had selected accommodation just down the hall from Dori, Nori and Ori. Not quite royal levels but highly respectable all the same.

The Hogwarts contingent had scouted around and after much debate had chosen to locate the new Hogwarts castle on the lower edge of the mountain’s south arm. It was less than five miles from Erebor’s main Gates and only a half mile from the Guard Tower of Ravenhill. The dwarves watched in amazement as stone was shaped and stacked to form an elegant castle with five massive towers, all surrounded by a lowset wall. The foundations were laid, and one tower was complete, before construction was halted, due to the preparations for the oncoming winter and the planning for the much-wanted influx of dwarves from the Blue Mountains or Ered Luin as the Thorin called it.

Dwalin, Gloín, Fíli and Kíli offered to head back to Ered Luin and inform Thorin’s people that the mountain was waiting for them, but the oncoming winter concerned Thorin.

“What about carpets?” Kíli asked Thorin one day. “We could take a few days. One night with Beorn, one at Rivendell, one at Bilbo’s, then on to Ered Luin.”

Thorin blinked and hummed in thought, before going looking for Harry, finding him in the pavilion, sitting in on a class on transfiguration uses in building, with a number of the other students. “Kíli had a suggestion about Ered Luin.” He went on to tell Harry, what Kíli had suggested. “What of powering the carpets? We've taken master Snape's Core Booster, how long until we know if they've worked for us? How long will a crystal sustain a carpet in flight? At what height? Bearing how much weight? Bearing how many people? Would it be simply to deposit those of my Company? Or would it be possible to collect those that would live in Erebor? How much many trips would it take to retrieve those that wish to join us?” The questions were fired in rapid succession.

“I’m uncertain.” Harry frowned. “Miss Sissy would need to scan you all, that's way beyond me. As for carpets? Padma? Parvati? You two are the most familiar with carpets. What do you say, that you work with Thorin and his crew to come to some sort of arrangement in regard to getting someone to Ered Luin and whomever back from there? Agreed?”

Padma, Parvati and Lavender all exchanged glances, before nodding.

“We can do that, Harry.” Lavender gave a smile. “Shall we meet with Thorin and Balin to discuss it?”

“Yes, please, Lavender.” Harry smiled back at the girl, she’d had a hard time coming to grips with the emotional upheaval that the battle had left for her. “I think I speak for most of us from Hogwarts, when I say that if we need to charge unbonded crystals, just let us know. Don’t forget to see Miss Sissy about core scans, that may make things a little easier. Don't bank on it, but it is a consideration.”

“Ooh, yes.” Padma gasped. “I’d forgotten bout the unbonded crystals. We’ll talk to Thorin. About the carpets, crystals and find out who among his Company took the booster. Once we have all those details, the four of us can work out a solution.”

“Brilliant, I’ll leave that with you.” Harry crossed it off his list. “Next is… What?”

“That would be me, Harry.” Oliver had entered the pavilion a jog, during Padma’s last comment. “I’d suggest that Lavender, Padma and Parvati do their research, but not take action, just yet. You and McGonagall assigned me to head security and work with Dwalin and the elves. Then gave me Justin, Colin, Dennis and Euan as scouts. We’re seeing movement of orcs from both the north-west and from the south. Torvold and Jessian went to the north with Colin and Euan, they reported a force of over fifteen thousand. They’re using some sort of massive earthworm, the damn things are taller than Gringotts, maybe a about fifty feet, no idea how long they are. There’s a few trolls, too, mountain trolls by the look of it, and some sort of troll-giant cross bred thing, not a troll but not a true giant, either. They’re about the same size as Hagrid’s friend.”

“Shite.” Harry sighed.

“There’s more. There’s a smaller force coming from the south, more than five thousand but less than ten, it’s a bit vague. The bloody things stayed in the fringes of the forest, so… getting exact numbers? It just wasn’t going to happen. Sorry.” Oliver shrugged. “Lendalen and Justin, are still tracking them. They’re on a carpet under heavy disillusionment charms. Finfain and Dennis are a few hours in front, they’ll leapfrog with Justin and Lendalen, one team resting while the other tracks.” Oliver turned to Legolas and Kressian. “I suggest sending King Thranduil a warning. Dennis used an eavesdropping charm to try and listening, then he had to hold Finfain back, the orcs are coming here, and their plans are simple. Once they have the mountain, they’ll start on the forest, they plan to burn it to the ground. They’ll attack some place called Laketown and sink it, the leader was clear, they’re not to allow any survivors, kill them all, he said.”

“We must warn them.” Legolas said. “The Master of Laketown is a greedy man, but Eryn Galen has contracts with the town for supplies. Without those supplies, those in my father’s Halls will fall to hunger.”

“Get together with Hermione and Justin. The three of you get to sort that. Hermione knows of the man that is the… What did you call him, Mione?” Harry interrupted himself.

“Bard is the descendant of Girion, the Lord of Dale.” Hermione answered. “Girion fired a Black arrow at Smaug during his attack on the city, it hit and broke off a scale. Bard is the unofficial… he’s the one the people turn to, he’s accused of being the people’s champion and frequently is the one to find food for the poor and medicinal herbs for the elderly and ill.”

“I know of Bard, he is a bargeman. Our supplies are mostly delivered in barrels and he is the one that retrieves and delivers them back to the town.” Legolas said.

“Right, we’re out of our depth, a little, here.” Harry shook his head. “Thorin? You’re the most experienced when it comes to warfare, I’m handing everything over to you. Just… please remember that we need to be reasonably close to affect the enemy, not right in the thick of it, but close. We have a group of aerial fighters, Oliver lead a flight at Hogwarts and felt that it would be handy to have here, so he’s been training them. The younger ones may not be ready for a full-on battle, but they can help behind the scenes, levitating the injured, conjuring arrows for the archers, helping the healers, that sort of thing.”

“Yes, I understand. I would like to speak more with whomever can give me a breakdown of capabilities for each of your people. Knowing what I have to work with is essential.” Thorin nodded.

“Frank and Severus.” Harry answered. “They’ve been working with the contingent since the day after the battle. Frank has been working us hard, physically, with Severus right there beside him, snarking at us as we went. If we’d had a few more months before this hit, I might have thought about involving Smaug, getting him to fight with us, but I’m not sure that it’d work, he’s still a bit anti-dwarf.”

“No, leave him where he is.” Thorin said. “Maybe have him guard the Nest or the infirmary? But no more than that, the risk of Azog or Bolg tempting him is just too great.” Thorin agreed.

“I agree with Harry, I hand my people into your command.” Legolas said to Thorin. “A messenger to my father would be advisable, but if someone would locate the White Gems, he’d be far more receptive to elven involvement.”

“Agreed.” Thorin nodded. “Harry? Would you and Bill see to that?” Thorin had only just started to use the name abbreviations that the Hogwarts people preferred.

“Will do.” Harry nodded. “Send whoever is to be messenger to the mountain. Bill and I will be in the treasury.” He waved to the Professor and left the pavilion at a jog, absently summoning a broom as he went.

“Thank you.” Thorin called to his retreating back and turned to Oliver. “How fast are the orcs travelling? How many days do we have before they arrive? Best guess.”

“A week to ten days?” Oliver grimaced. “No longer than a fortnight at the outside, but certainly no less than a week.”

“Good, that I can work with. I need to find Balin, then Master Snape. If you would be so kind as to send a message to Auror Longbottom and Dwalin, tell them I would speak with them in the Gate Guard room.” Thorin requested.

“I can do that.” Oliver nodded. “I’m assuming you want me to hang around and give a more detailed report?”

“Yes, please. Legolas? If you and Kressian would join us, I believe we can get plans underway.” Thorin took a deep breath. “Let’s get started.” Legolas and Oliver nodded and headed for the mountain, while Thorin grabbed a broom and headed for Snape’s lab.


	28. Chapter 28

_“How fast are the orcs travelling? How many days do we have before they arrive? Best guess.”_

_“A week to ten days?” Oliver grimaced. “No longer than a fortnight at the outside, but certainly no less than a week.”_

_“Good, that I can work with. I need to find Balin, then Master Snape. If you would be so kind as to send a message to Auror Longbottom and Dwalin, tell them I would speak with them in the Gate Guard room.” Thorin requested._

_“I can do that.” Oliver nodded. “I’m assuming you want me to hang around and give a more detailed report?”_

_“Yes, please. Legolas? If you and Kressian would join us, I believe we can get plans underway.” Thorin took a deep breath. “Let’s get started.” Legolas and Oliver nodded and headed for the mountain, while Thorin grabbed a broom and headed for Snape’s lab._

Narcissa sat beside a smirking Severus Snape. Not something totally unusual, but the fact that Harry Potter, who sat on the other side of the potions Master, Sirius Black who sat beside his husband in the audience, and the Weasley twins, were **_all_** wearing the same smirk, was.

“Alright, settle down, please.” Narcissa said, in her no-nonsense medi-witch’s voice. “Thank you. We laid out a rough outline for the upcoming… battle…” The word was sneered daintily. “Jessian and Lendalen are on route to Eryn Galen, to return the White Gems to Thranduil and to notify him that two armies of orcs are set to converge on Erebor in a few days, and ask for reinforcements, food and medical supplies. Torvold and Windelor are en route to Lake Town to warn Bard and the Master of the orcs and advise them to get their people out or pull up the bridge between the town and the lake-fringes.” She laid aside a single sheet of parchment. “Fleur has agreed to assist me, when they return, to brief them on the contents of this meeting. [Merci beaucoup, ma cherie](Thank%20you,%20very%20much,%20my%20dear).” The last was said in French and directed to Fleur.

“[ _De rein_](you%20are%20most%20welcome).” Fleur responded in the same language and nodded regally to Narcissa.

“To the battle, itself.” Narcissa barely withheld her dislike at the thought of another war. “After we finish here, Colin will take Balin to meet up with Thorin’s cousin, Dáin, so that he can be briefed. Thank you, both.” She nodded to Balin and Colin. “Everyone has put forward their ideas, over the last two days and Thorin, Dwalin, Harry, Severus, Legolas and Kressian have met and read through them. As I said, a rough outline has been reached, we will need to finesse this down further, of course, but I did say ‘ ** _rough_** ’. We will be dividing into teams and each team will have a chance to refine their… attacks….” She pulled her wand and flicked it at the wall , off to her right and a large sheet of parchment became visible. “Once I announce the teams, I’d like you to move into those teams, left to right,” she waved her hand from one side to the other.

A few voices agreed but most people just nodded and let her continue.

“Thank you. Team one? Lavender, Padma and Parvati. Team two? Luna, Fleur, Sirius and Remus. Team three? Bilbo, Colin, Dennis, Euan, Natalie, Headley and Justin. Team four? Severus, Harry and Thorin. Team five? The Weasley brothers, the quidditch queens, Frank, Alice, Draco, Oliver, Ori, Fíli, Bofur and Nori. Team six? Hermione, Kíli and our elven archers. Team seven? Neville, Seamus, our dwarven allies and any elves that prefer blades over arrows. Team eight? All other magicals. Team nine? Myself and Oín. If everyone would please move into your teams?”

There was a few minutes of clattering noise as people moved and took their chairs with them, a few muttered comments and a magical in each group, conjured up a sign that floated above them with their group number on it.

“Thank you. If there is anyone that feels that they are in the wrong group, I ask you to wait until duties are assigned, as that may change your mind.” Narcissa held up a hand as a couple of people raised their own hands, those hands fell and the people attached to them nodded. “Again, thank you. We are basing most of our attacks on confusion, this is because we will have a limited number of people who will be in the actual battle, in comparison to the enemy. No-one we’ve spoken to has been able to determine a single reason for an orc to be spared, not one that stood up to scrutiny, anyway. As a result of this, we have determined that the only possible outcome for this battle is that the orcs and their allies must die.” Narcissa’s comments were greeted by a multitude of agreements. “Unfortunately we only have a limited number of people that are prepared to be directly responsible for ending the life of another being, even one so foul as an orc.”

“Hence the pranks?” Hermione asked.

“Hence the pranks. Without knowing if and how many elves Thranduil may send or if he will even allow Jessian and Lendalen return to us, we are only counting those on those who have stayed here and Torvold and Windelor. However, Thorin **_has_** been in contact with Dáin, we know that he’s bringing five hundred and fifty warriors with him and that they’ll be here late tomorrow evening. That should, hopefully, give them a full day to recover from the hurried journey and a second day to prepare for the battle itself. That being the case, we are planning on five hundred and sixty three dwarves, sixteen elves, thirty four magicals and one hobbit. We are not including Teddy, as an infant, he will not be involved and will stay in the mountain, at the healer’s station, with myself.”

“Thank you, Sissy.” Sirius gave his cousin a smile.

“You’re welcome, Siri.” She replied. “Each team will be assigned an area to target and each area will be clearly marked. Please try not to encroach on another team’s areas, your method of attack may not complement theirs and may render both methods defunct.” The grumbling that had started, when she’d mentioned not encroaching, stopped when she told them why.

“There are three areas that will cover the entire battlefield between them. Pink to the left, purple in the centre and blue to the right. Wait. Allow me to explain further and you will understand why this is so.” She held up a hand again. “Team one are pink, they will be laying something that Hermione calls landmines, bombs hidden under a layer of dirt, camouflaged to look like the ground around it. but instead of explosives containing metal, they will contain bath bombs and other personal hygiene products. For those that haven’t seen a bath bomb, the girls have a demonstration for later. These bombs will be highly scented and have cleansing charms and soap centres. They will also be casting a myriad of hygiene charms on the ocrs.”

There were a few giggles and laughs.

“Exactly.” Narcissa pursed her lips. “Orcs are filthy creatures that revel in dirt, decay and death. We are going to be using that to our advantage. Our actual killing force is limited, so confusion must reign long enough, for that force to be effective.”

Faces cleared and heads nodded, now they understood.

“Team two have the purple section and their landmines will be transfiguring orc clothing and armour, into a number of things. Mostly ridiculous things. Silk, lace, ribbons, feather boas, corsets, lingerie, swimwear, if you can think of something, do it.” She smiled at the anticipation on Sirius and Luna’s faces.

“Team three will have the blue section and, in addition to landmines containing a variety of potions, they will be using muggle weapons, paint guns, Justin called them, to deliver small pellets of liquids that will burst upon impact. Each of these pellets are shrunken, or at least the exterior of them is shrunk, they each contain largish amounts of liquid. Liquids like soap, honey, perfume and cleansers.” Narcissa paused as people laughed.

“Team four will be in charge of setting off the hidden traps, be they physical like the landmines or magical, like _[leviocorpus](body%20levitating%20charm)_ nets. They’ll be on brooms, well above the battle itself. However, we understand that Thorin and Legolas wish to be the ones to deal with the orc leaders, and we’ll support them however we can. Team five will be the aerial attacks, they’ll be using potions and powders in small parcels that will burst on impact. These will contain various things. Cleaning potions, shrinking potions, blindness potions, itching powders, blindness powders, disinfectant potions and liquidised cleaning charms. And the Wonder-Witch range from Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.”

The twins laughed and jumped up giving each other high-fives.

“Yes, yes, we’re using whatever we can to distract and confuse our enemies.” Narcissa waved them down. “Team six are the archers, at this point in time all magicals are charging crystals for recovery use, but shortly we are going to turn to other things, potions and prep-work for those that are safe in a potions lab, conjuring arrows for others, charming our allies’ clothing and weapons for others. We will have many allies out on the battlefield and all of them will be exposed to whatever is out there. The only defence they will have from our landmines is what we give them prior to the battle.”

Most people nodded, while a few frowned, not quite understanding.

“That will make more sense in a few moments, I assure you.” Narcissa advised. “Team seven are… team seven will be physically on the battlefield, they are the ones that will be predominantly responsible for ending the lives of our enemies. Team eight will be the magical equivalent, casting cutting hexes, blasting curses, heartstoppers, reverse bubbleheads and other charms, hexes and jinxes that **_will be fatal_** if not treated.”

Eyes opened and mouths fell.

“Exactly. Team nine will remain inside the mountain, staffing the healers’ station.” Narcissa sat back. “Harry is going to hand out to each team a listing of pranks that we’d like each team to prepare, most of these will be placed in fixed positions that will allow us to channel the orcs into the area set aside for team seven’s use. Now, I’d prefer you all to think about this for a few minutes, but if after taking that time, you believe that you belong in a different team, please approach calmly and present your reasoning.”

A young blond lad, very similar to the one that flew him to the mountain, lead a still dazed Dáin into Thorin’s office. “Thorin? Colin brought Dáin here. Dain said, Balin said something about getting this troops here faster? He’s a bit wobbly, but getting better, a calming draught would go a long way. Want me to fetch one?” The lad was bubbling over with enthusiasm.

“Yes, Dennis, thank you. If you would also locate Harry, Legolas and Severus, I’d much appreciate it.” Thorin spoke to the young lad.

“I can do that.” Dennis bounced on his toes and darted away.

“He makes me tired just watching him.” Thorin muttered.

“Iffen he’s anything like the other one, I kin understand why.” Dáin nodded and the two dwarves shared a moment of commiseration before really grasping who the other was. “Cousin!” Dáin yelled and thumped across the room.

“Dáin!” Thorin met him halfway and after a brief embrace, the two lined up and… CRASH! Two foreheads collided.

“Good to see you, cousin.” Dáin sighed in pleasure at having family in the mountain again. “I got your raven and rounded up a few lads, they’ll be here before dark, or shortly after.”

“Aye, that’s grand, cousin. We’ve a war to win.” Thorin replied.

“Bloody long-legged tree huggers.” Dáin muttered.

“Nay, Dáin, not the elves, not this time. Orcs, there’s two damn armies headed for my mountain and I’ve less than a hundred people to repel them with.” Thorin corrected. “Which is why I sent for you.”

“Not the elves?” Dáin raised a brow in surprise.

“Nay, not the elves. In this, I’ve a prince of Eryn Galen as an ally, Thranduil granted his younger son release, gave him permission to carve out a Principality of his own. Legolas and I have reached an agreement, he and his will aid Erebor as though they were citizens of the mountain, in exchange he and his will have all rights to that little stretch of forest off to the west, the one that almost reaches Eryn Galen, but falls short by a few miles, that and hunting rights on the mountain and to anything to the north of Dale. The elves aren’t my only allies, there’s a small community of magicals, as well. They’ll be settling on the surface on the south arm. Of course, a small mutual tithe will be paid by all. Erebor will provide building materials, the elves will provide timber and game and the magicals will provide transport and education.”

Dáin tilted his head and hummed in thought. “That’s going to be… interesting…”

“You have no idea…” Thorin laughed.

“Having Balin and young Colin appear, riding on a floor rug…? I wasn’t expecting that. Having Colin suggest that he brought me here for a proper briefing, in advance of the lads… I wasn’t too sure about, but Balin seemed to think it a fine idea.” Dáin shook his head.

“He would, at that.” Thorin nodded.

“Riding on that… rug… It’s not to my liking, cousin.” The distaste on Dáin’s face made Thorin snort.

“Nor to mine, I prefer one of the modified brooms, while Balin prefers his chair.” At the confused look on Dáin’s face, Thorin added. “Something for later, Dáin, after a briefing. Just wait until you watch a game of quidditch.”

“Quidditch? Young Colin mentioned it, played on brooms, right?” Dáin asked.

“Oh, yes, but trying to explain it, is like trying to explain to an outsider, how a seam of mithril sounds. It just doesn’t translate, you have to hear it for yourself, or in the case of quidditch, see it for yourself.” Thorin explained.

“Ah…”

A quiet knock on the timber frame of Thorin’s office door, had both dwarves turning.

“Harry, Legolas, come in. Have a seat.” Thorin waved in two people. “Dáin, these are Legolas, prince of Eryn Galen and whatever he plans to call his new princedom and Harry, Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. Harry, Legolas, my cousin Dáin Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills. Is Severus not joining us?”

Dáin studied them as they crossed the office to a trio of chairs. One was clearly an elf, tall, long-legged with pale silvery/gold hair and light blue eyes. The other was a young Man, or that was how he appeared. Pale skin, just a hint of warmth to his colouring, with rich green eyes that seemed old before their time, even with the gleam of innocent mischief dancing in them. Messy hair and dirty clothes, he looked like a street urchin from a human town, but his bearing and his eyes contradicted his appearance, as he handed Thorin a small bottle.

“One calming draught, Dennis said something about you wanting one? Oh, and Severus will be along shortly, he’s just finishing up on bottling the last of the antidote potions. Fred and George are monitoring the anti-charm potions, they need another hour and a half before they can be bottled, but there’ll be plenty for Dáin’s warriors to spray their weapons and armour.” Harry replied and bowed to Dáin. “Welcome to Erebor, Lord Dáin. I hope that our enemies tremble in fear at our alliance.”

“I, too, welcome the warriors of the Iron Hills, if their Lord will accept my allegiance.” Legolas followed Harry’s lead and bowed to the redheaded dwarf.

“Pretty manners.” Dáin grunted to Thorin, before nodding to them both. “We’ll see. Your stance with Erebor will go far to gaining my dwarves approval… and mine.”

“Fair enough.” Harry nodded and opened his mouth to continue when a tall man in black clothes knocked on the doorframe.

“Severus, please join us.” Thorin called him in. “Dáin, this is Master of Potions, Severus Snape. Severus, my cousin Dáin, Lord of the Iron Hills. Both of you sit down, we have a lot to discuss. Harry? If you would start, please?” He handed the small bottle to Dáin. “Down that in one go, it tastes foul, but works well.” Dáin nodded and swallowed the purple liquid, grimacing at the chalky taste.

“Sure. Severus? Will you make sure I don’t leave anything out?” Harry asked.

“Always, Potter.” Snape nodded.

“Right, so we have two armies coming at us, one from…” Harry began to brief Dáin on what they were expecting and how they planned to deal with it.

As Dáin left with Harry to meet up with Colin, who was going to fly him back to his warriors, the young wizard told him about Kíli’s comment and Padma, Parvati and Lavender’s plans to use carpets, to transport Thorin’s people from Ered Luin to Erebor.

“And these carpets? You think that these _ainuth_ , these girls…? They can do this? Transport hundreds of dwarves, across a thousand miles, on floor rugs?” The disbelief was clear.

Harry just laughed. “Let me ask you something. Have you ever known a female to admit they can’t do something that they want to? Have you ever known a female to back down from what she wants? What makes you think that human females are any different than dwarven females?”

“Huh… Do they have enough rugs? Or people to fly them?”

“As far as I know…? Yes. Padma and Parvati come from a very ethnically traditional family, one that disowned them when Parvati was injured, she wasn’t perfect anymore and her family wanted nothing to do with a damaged female. Padma stuck by her twin and was disowned for her actions.” Harry held up a hand to stall Dáin’s disgust. “I was most displeased with the Patil family and I let it be known, it cost them a large sum of money, both the girls’ had betrothal contracts, which I made their families pay out, I also made sure that both girls got their complete dowries **_and_** trust vaults. On top of that I insisted on a payout for the girls, both of them took it as carpets and other traditional materials. Then I watched as they were adopted into a friend’s family, as his sisters.”

Dáin said nothing but Harry heard a rumble from the dwarf.

“I wasn’t that polite. I sent their family, and a number of other families, a howler.” At Dáin’s raised brow, Harry continued. “A howler is a letter that usually records the sender’s verbal message. They’re rarely pleasant and tend to be used to express severe displeasure.”

“That why they’re called howlers?” Dáin asked.

“It is.” Harry grinned.

“So, the girls have rugs, enough to transport the nearly five thousand dwarves from one side of the continent to the other.” Dáin nodded.

“They do, but I doubt that they’re going to do that to start with. I think Thorin plans to call for workers, first. Let people get ready to move, but only bring enough to repair the inside of the mountain. Magic can do a lot, but if we don’t understand the type of construction, we aren’t going to be much help. Thorin needs builders and miners, farming can be left to Hogwarts, for the moment, while hunting will be predominantly the elves bailiwick.” Harry sighed. “Even with Thorin backing them, not everyone is going to want to leave the relevant safety of Ered Luin. The memories and tales of the dragon will see to that.”

“Maybe, but the chance to live and prosper will be very tempting, you’re going to have to watch out for freeloaders.” Dáin warned.

“Thorin’s well aware and the rest of us will see that any that think they can take advantage of him… well, let’s just say, they’ll regret it.” Harry’s voice went hard, his eyes cold, and Dáin realised that the young Man wasn’t as innocent as he had assumed.

“Hmm… Balin mentioned that some of Thorin’s lads have taken some sort of brew that will let them do magic?” It came out as a question.

“Yes, Miss Sissy tested them all and dwarves, or at least those of the Company have a magical core that’s been stunted by lack of exposure to ambient magic. Severus worked out a… well, it’s a type of booster, it opens their core and encourages it to grow. If they had the lifespan of a human, their cores wouldn’t reach full maturity before they died, but dwarves life longer, almost double that of most magicals. I don’t know how many will be able to use a wand, but most of them will be able to fly a broom or carpet, without draining their core dangerously. Hermione and Alice are working on a charm that will enable them to use the booster crystal as a way to the crystals to help their cores. But that could take them a while, months definitely, maybe years.” Harry replied.

“So… the girls will have plenty of fliers to draft to man these rugs…” Dáin hummed.

“They will.” Harry nodded. “But we’re not going to worry about that until the orcs are dealt with. Oh, there’s Colin.” Harry pointed to an area up ahead of them but off to the right. “Colin! Got everything?”

“Yeah.” Colin yelled back. “Professor Snape’s sending Justin with us, wants him to show the dwarves how to use the spray packs, so it won’t be down to just one person to spray everybody’s stuff.” He was loading a large cask through a door into a pocket-space. “As soon as Lord Dáin is ready, we’re cleared to leave.” He closed the door and shrunk the frame, tucking it in the satchel that was slung over his shoulder.

“How long do we have before the orcs reach us?” Dáin asked.

“Three days.” Harry answered. “You and your dwarves should get here late tonight, that will give them two days to rest, prepare and be briefed. We estimate that the force from Dol Guldur should arrive first, likely early morning, the force from Gundabad will be a few hours behind them. Thorin and Severus believe that this is deliberate, the intention being to let us get into the battle and then overwhelm us from two different directions.”

“But as you know this, it won’t be a surprise and won’t have the effect that the orc leaders are hoping for.” Dáin nodded approvingly.

“Exactly.” Harry grinned.

“Well, done.” He thumped Harry on the shoulder and stomped off towards Colin. “Let’s get back to my lads, before they think I’ve abandoned them.” He settled on the carpet and nodded to Colin. “When you’re ready, Master Colin.”

“See ya later, Harry.” Colin waved and the carpet rose into the air and began its journey east.


	29. Chapter 29

_“How long do we have before the orcs reach us?” Dáin asked._

_“Three days.” Harry answered. “You and your dwarves should get here late tonight, that will give them two days to rest, prepare and be briefed. We estimate that the force from Dol Guldur should arrive first, likely early morning, the force from Gundabad will be a few hours behind them. Thorin and Severus believe that this is deliberate, the intention being to let us get into the battle and then overwhelm us from two different directions.”_

_“But as you know this, it won’t be a surprise and won’t have the effect that the orc leaders are hoping for.” Dáin nodded approvingly._

_“Exactly.” Harry grinned._

_“Well, done.” He thumped Harry on the shoulder and stomped off towards Colin. “Let’s get back to my lads, before they think I’ve abandoned them.” He settled on the carpet and nodded to Colin. “When you’re ready, Master Colin.”_

_“See ya later, Harry.” Colin waved and the carpet rose into the air and began its journey east._

Harry became aware of the blankness around him, first. Then there was a waft of air that brought with it a faint smell of fires and cauldrons and potions, mixed with the sharp scent of Alihotsy and bloodroot. That meant one place.

Hospital wing.

Again...

Slowly, other things began to make their presence felt. The scrape of stone against wood, that could be a chair being moved, but being followed by the tiny crunch of rocks breaking? That meant chess, wizarding chess. Then he could hear quietly mutter conversations, that was… Bill and Charlie, then there was Mione and McGonagall and was that Remus and Sirius…? But the Veil? Didn’t Sirius…?

He focused on that so hard, that the memories opening in his mind, startled him. Memories of duels, lessons, pensieves, caves, killing curses, towers, camping, running, elves, horcruxes, battles and courtrooms, filled his mind. Closely followed by meetings, with Hermione, with Kingsley, the Unspeakables, daily meetings with McGonagall and shifting into Longfang, over and over, again. Training and the gauntlet. Saying goodbye to his friends, the family of his heart and walking into the Veil. Beorn with his ponies and animals, Hermione and his trunk and all the people she’s hidden in it, Thorin and his Company.

And Sirius… Sirius was alive!

Something else nudged at his mind. He let out an inadvertent snicker.

Sirius was knocked up. Pregnant. Oh, how dad would be laughing his ass off.

“He’s awake.” Fleur said.

“Not quite.” Hermione objected. “But almost, give him a few more minutes.”

“I’ll fetch Sissy.” Fleur said.

Sounds continued and Harry continued to process them, letting his mind sort them into things he could understand.

“Let’s see how he’s going, shall we?” Narcissa’s gentle voice floated down from above him as she began to cast her medical scans over him. “I agree with Hermione, he’s not quite awake, yet. But given how hard he came down, it could take more than a few minutes. He’s got quite the concussion, it’s going to scramble his senses for a few days. Magic can do a lot to repair the damage, but not even magic can repair it, instantly. He will progressively improve.”

Harry grunted his disagreement.

“That’s not how Harry works, Miss Sissy.” Hermione corrected the healer, from somewhere off to Harry’s left.

“No?” Sissy asked.

“Oh, no, not Harry. Once he wakes up, which should be in about… half a minute… he’ll be back on his feet inside the hour. He was unconscious for approximately forty-eight hours, that means that he’ll only take an hour or two and he’ll be pretty much back to normal.” She paused. “Normal for him, anyway.”

“I don’t-”

“It’s something to do with having phoenix tears in his blood, Madam Pomfrey theorised. He recovers fast, once he wakes up, even broken bones. Skele-gro is supposed to take twenty-four hours to regrow bones, but Harry takes less than a third of that. He-”

“Not phoenix tears.” Harry grunted. “Lockhart was before basilisk. Croaker said, more to do with magical strength.” He forced his eyes open. “Hey…”

“Harry!” Headley and Charlie both cried out and darted across the room, coming to a halt and falling to heir knees, one on each side of his stretcher.

“Oh, Harry…” Headley started to cry, his shoulders hunching and shaking.

“Harry…” Charlie reached for Harry’s hand, his fingers grasping the battered digits gently. “If you scare me like that again, I’ll let Sirius lock you up, like he threatened to do after the Umbridge thing.”

“Nooo…” Harry whined, curling closer Charlie's side. “No, don’t let him, no…”

“Harry, you dive bombed their communications tower.” Charlie replied. “You knew that they had backup coming and you knew that we were coming to back you up, but you went ahead anyway. No, no more. No more risking your life, unnecessarily. Do you want our children to grow up with only one parent?” Charlie's voice was quiet but very firm. “No more, Harry.”

Harry’s eyes opened wide and the expression on his face could only be called stunned.

“Before you hand him over to Sirius, let me finish up my scans.” Narcissa’s lips twitched, but she managed to withhold her smile… just.

“How did we go?” Harry asked. “Is anyone else hurt? Did we lose anyone?” He looked for Hermione for answers, finding her on a bed, two over to his left.

“The landmines performed as expected.” Hermione smiled grimly. “Very few orcs managed to ignore the results, some did, but they numbered in the hundreds, not thousands. The archers cut those numbers down further and the ground warriors took care of the rest. We lost fourteen dwarves from the Iron Hills, two elves from those that King Thranduil sent with Jessian and Lendalen. Dwalin, Balin, Fíli, Kíli, Thorin and Tauriel were injured, most of them not severely but Miss Sissy and Fleur are still working on them. Thorin’s got the worst of it, a sword through the upper chest, damn good thing that Severus and Sirius were close by, Sirius managed to boost Severus as he dropped Thorin into stasis and place him under a disillusionment charm. They sent a Patronus to Miss Sissy, who called Justin to go and fetch him as soon as it was safe, before they went on to finished off the orcs in that area. That’s about when you did your kamikaze stunt.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Harry had come to like the stubborn dwarf and counted him as a good friend.

“He’s still under stasis, Miss Sissy wants her, Fleur and Sirius rested and ready, before they remove the charm. Then they plan to use the de-aging potion, Sissy thinks it’s the only real chance for him. That raises another issue… If it works, Severus feels that it’s going to react differently for him than it does for humans. Severus, if you would explain, please?” Hermione looked to the potions Master, who was leaning against a wall, his body language exposing exactly how tired he was.

“Of course, Mrs Malfoy.” It was said quietly. “In humans, the de-aging potion reverses their body’s aging, giving them back the years that were taken from them. In my experiments using the potion on Thorin’s dwarves, if doesn’t quite work the same on them. Yes, it repairs the damage their bodies have received over a certain number of years, but it doesn’t extend their lives by those years, as it does in humans.” He sighed, again. “Their bodies will repair the injuries, but they won’t be de-aged like humans would be.”

“But… if it works, he’ll be healed?” Harry asked, his eyes begging for a positive response.

“If it works, yes.” Severus nodded.

“How long will it take to know?” Harry asked.

“We should have a clear response within a couple of minutes.” The potions Master replied. “His injuries are visible, if we see them repairing, we know that it’s working.”

“But I refuse to take the risk before Fíli and Kíli are awake, they deserve the chance to say goodbye, if the potion doesn’t work.” Narcissa warned. “And both are currently heavily sedated.”

“And I have had an idea on how to modify the potion, it may increase the potency for non-humans.” Severus added.

“But he’s under stasis? That worked? He won’t get any worse?” Harry asked.

“The charm is holding fine.” Miss Sissy assured him.

“Okay…” Harry lay back, linking his fingers through Charlie and Headley’s. “So…? The battle briefing…? Who’s going to present that?”

“Hermione’s got that.” Charlie huffed. “She seems to know what you want to know, before you even ask.”

“That’s Mione. She knows me better than I know myself, always has.” Harry gave a broken laugh.

“Of course, she does.” Charlie shook his head. “She’s been there through everything, she knows exactly what sort of rubbish you get up to.”

“And usually, she’s right there beside me.” Harry grinned.

“Well, not today, me bucko.” Bill said as he ambled across the… was it a room or a Hall(?), with most of their allies behind him. “Fleur’s just given her a phial of Dreamless Sleep. She suggested that each of us give you a quick run through and she can give you a more detailed briefing tomorrow.”

“That would be brilliant, Bill.” Harry grinned and nodded, accepting a mug of soup from an amused Remus, while a fussing Sirius fluffed around behind Harry, trying to put extra pillows behind him. Charlie snorted, tossed the pillows away and put himself behind the younger wizard, earning himself a pouting glare from Sirius. “Who’s first?”

“Me.” Headley grinned. “I saw a pair of orcs have their clothes turn into something from a Victoria’s Secret Catalogue, complete with wings and their weapons turned into a muggle kid’s fairy wand, with ribbons.”

“I watched some have theirs turn into bad drag queen costumes, feather boas and all.” Seamus laughed.

“Most of ours just had their turn into swimwear.” Padma stood with Parvati and Lavender.

“Yeah, ours had theirs turn into lingerie.” Remus nodded.

“Ours got covered in foam, I mean, their armour turned to foam.” Colin added.

“A whole group of them had their weapons turn into rubber chickens.” Dennis bounced beside his brother.

“Fred and George added something to our section.” Lavender fake-glared at the twins. “All their boots turned to thigh-high stiletto boots and their weapons into band-leader’s batons.”

“A lot were shrunk and, unfortunately, not all of those were found.” Snape added. “Although… I did see Mrs Malfoy shrink and summon a giant, I do believe that she gave it to Smaug as a chew toy.”

“She did.” Draco snorted. “And she was most put out when Smaug proceeded to keep it as a pet. Charlie insisted he wash it and made the beast little clothes, so the blasted thing can stay with him, he’s been sleeping with the bloody thing, like it’s a plushie toy.”

“There were also a heap that had their boots turn into roller-skates.” George grinned.

“And some that ended up wearing lace corsets and nightgowns.” Fred waggled his eyebrows.

“Most weapons turned into pool noodles or rubber versions.” Justin was biting his lips in an effort not to laugh.

“Some turned into kids’ plastic ones.” Natalie laughed.

“And they didn’t know how to deal with fireworks or the twins’ explosives. Near the end, any time one went off, an orc nearly cried.” Neville smiled in remembered bliss. “It made it so easy to pick them off.”

“Frank hit a small pack of wargs with the shrinking potion, but it must have reacted badly with their system.” Alice added. “It just de-aged them. Now, he’s got a pack of warg puppies, that think he’s their daddy, following him around.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder and when he looked, Harry saw a carpet holding half a dozen huge puppies, floating in the corridor.

“Dáin’s dwarves had grand time.” Balin added. “It’s not often they’re allowed free rein like that.”

“Aye, they did.” Dáin agreed. “Your people fought well, better than I thought they would.”

“Always the tone of surprise.” Harry sighed.

“What? Did I sound surprised?” Dáin frowned.

“No.” Harry shook his head. “It’s a standing joke between Hermione, me and a friend that we had to leave behind. One of us said it every time someone admitted they didn’t know something.” A look of sadness flittered across his face before he forced it away.

“Ah… In that case, yes. I admit it, I was surprised at how well they fought and how few injuries they gained.” Dáin allowed.

“Magicals tend to be a little more… robust… than non-magicals.” Sissy replied.

“Well, you’re going to have trouble with some of them.” Dáin held up a hand when Harry went to object. “Wait a bit. The trouble’s not so much with them, but… My second Cohort have decided that they want to keep a couple of your lads.”

“Oh…” Harry exclaimed.

“Aye. And the leader of my Seventh Cohort wants to Court one of your ladies.” Dáin warned.

“Oh, Merlin…” Harry buried his face in his hands.

“And who would that be?” Balin asked.

“Lady Parvati, Balin.” Dáin answered. “My son, Thorin Stonehelm. He’s enamoured with the way she dealt with a few of the rowdier lads.”

“Oh, boy…” Harry knew Parvati’s temper rivalled his. “What did she do?”

“She silenced them.” Dáin laughed. “She silenced them, stuck them to their seats and proceeded to ignore them and any request to release them. Then, the next morning, she made sure that they went without your headache potion and charmed little bands of instruments to followed them around, clashing and ringing their little clangers off. By lunchtime, the lads were truly sorry, begging for help but she reminded them that they liked that level of noise the night before. My Thorin was most impressed. He asked me to inquire if she was betrothed and if not, would she consider his suite?”

“Ooh, that’s going to be a problem…” Ori gasped.

“Why?” Dáin asked.

“Ah, well…” Balin was the one to reply. “Thorin and Draco have already reached an agreement. Lady Parvati suggested and it was agreed upon, that they would wait until we had dealt with the orcs before a contract would be signed.”

“Lady Parvati? She was involved?” Dáin asked.

“Aye. It t’was she and Fíli that Thorin and Draco in regard to the matter.” Balin.

“Is she genuinely interested in Fíli, do you think? Or would my Thorin stand a chance?” Dáin asked.

“Parvati’s genuine.” Harry growled. “That girl doesn’t have a deceitful bone in her whole body, not one. If she says she’s interested in someone, then she’s interested in them. The fact that she’s prepared to admit it, shows just how much she’s come to trust Fíli.”

“Why? What happened to cause a lack of trust?” Dáin asked.

“I told you about the girls and how they came to be with us?” Harry asked and when Dáin nodded, he went on. “Well, Parvati and a few others were attacked by a… well, let’s just call him a monster. He wasn’t an orc like Azog, but he was the closest that our world had. Greyback hunted innocents for the joy of hearing them scream or beg for death. Remus was the one to take him out, almost cost him his own life to do it, though. But Parvati was hurt. Not just physically, but also emotionally. And her family’s reaction didn’t help.”

“For her to acknowledge her interest in Fíli?” Sissy entered the conversation. “That’s a huge step for her, we honestly thought that she was going to become an emotional recluse.”

“So, my Thorin’s really not got a chance, then.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, no chance.”

“Well, damn.”

“However…?” Balin drawled.

“However…?” Dáin frowned.

“I can tell you that it wasn’t Lady Parvati that hexed your men, it was Lady Padma.” Balin smirked.

“And how can you be certain of that?” Dáin’s frown grew darker.

“Parvati hasn’t left Fíli’ bedside since the battle. Padma’s the only one that’s been out of the infirmary.” Balin replied innocently.

“But…” Dáin blustered. “My Thorin said…”

“And how would he know? Padma and Parvati **_are_** twins, Dáin.” Balin chided.

“Twins? Oh, dear… that complicates things.” Dáin grimaced.

“Indeed.” Balin sighed.

“Ah…? For those of us that don’t know dwarfish culture, what does that mean?” Remus asked.

“Ah, right, yes. Well… Twins aren’t separated. They might marry different people, but they live either in the same household or within yards of each other.” Balin explained.

“And Parvati and I have already decided that’s how it’s going to be for us, too.” Padma’s voice cut in. “Greyback’s tried to split us up once, no-one else is going to get the chance. When Draco and Thorin sign a contract for Fíli and Parvati, Severus and Draco are going to sign one for Justin and I. And Justin has signed on to be Fíli's magical tutor for the next few years.” There was no doubt in her voice, it was filled with certainty.

“I see.” Dáin sighed. “Pity. I should have liked to have had a strong daughter-in-law. More chance of children, if a dwarf’s got a strong wife.”

“I don’t think your Thorin could cope with a wife as strong as these ladies, Dáin.” Balin told Dáin. “Young Thorin’s not the most… confident of dwarves, a strong wife might be too much for him.”

“You could be right, you could be right.” Dáin nodded. “But how else do I get grandchildren? Our birth-rates are so low, only strong dams have children as it is.”

“There? We might be able to help you.” Sissy said. “I’d have to scan a few of your… dams, just to be certain, but there is a chance.”

“Any help would be greatly appreciated.” Balin replied and Dáin echoed him.


	30. Chapter 30

_“I see.” Dáin sighed. “Pity. I should have liked to have had a strong daughter-in-law. More chance of grandchildren, if a dwarf’s got a strong wife.”_

_“I don’t think your Thorin could cope with a wife as strong as these ladies, Dáin.” Balin told Dáin. “Young Thorin’s not the most… confident of dwarves, a strong wife might be too much for him.”_

_“You could be right, you could be right.” Dáin nodded. “But how else do I get grandchildren? Our birth-rates are so low, only strong dams have children as it is.”_

_“There? We might be able to help you.” Sissy said. “I’d have to scan a few of your… dams, just to be certain, but there is a chance.”_

_“Any help would be greatly appreciated.” Balin replied and Dáin echoed him._

Harry leant on Charlie as Hermione and Narcissa spoke about Narcissa’s upcoming trip to the Iron Hills to assess some of the dwarven women. He tuned out their conversation once they got down to discussing the itty-gritty details of being a female. It was bad enough to have to sit through Narcissa’s lectures on male pregnancies and childbirth, he wasn’t going to get involved in the female’s side of things.

Then something occurred to him.

“Excuse me?” He called to the two witches and when they turned to face him, he continued. “What about Thorin? Will you be seeing to him before you go?”

“Oh, yes. This afternoon, in fact.” Narcissa replied. “Fíli and Kíli are up and doing well.”

“And Dáin is here to be a witness to Thorin’s treatment.” Hermione added.

“Why do you need a witness?” Harry asked.

“Ah, well… Severus seems to think he’s ironed out the creases in the non-human de-aging potion and while the arithmancy works out…” Hermione answered.

“… until it’s tested, there’s still a possibility that it may not work the way he wants.” Harry finished for her.

“Yeah…” Hermione sighed. “And add into the equation that potions affect different people in different ways…?”

“Right. So, when are you going to do this?”

“Severus wants to trial it on Bifur, first. If the arithmancy is correct, it should remove the axe from his forehead and return control of his speech centres, to him.” Hermione said as Narcissa headed off into the hospital Hall. “We’d have more of an idea of the possibility of success, then.”

“How does Bifur feel about this?”

“Bofur and Bombur say that he’s quite eager to try it.” Hermione said as she gently bullied Harry into the hospital wing and into a chair. “You sit there and when we’re ready to start with Thorin, we’ll call you. Okay?” She didn’t wait for a reply but hurried off after Narcissa.

“O-kay… I guess we’re waiting here, then.” Charlie drawled.

“I guess…” Harry cast a fondly exasperated glance after his friend.

Within minutes people had begun to congregate and created a waiting area around Harry and Charlie. First it was Parvati, Fíli and Kíli, then Padma came looking for her sister with Justin in tow, and a few minutes later Remus and Sirius came looking for Harry, quickly followed by Oliver, Colin, Dennis and Headley. Which lead to the twins, Lee and the quidditch queens with McGonagall and Ollivander not far behind them. By the time Hermione, Fleur and Narcissa left Bifur’s room, the entire Hogwarts contingent, most of Thorin’s Company and even a few of the elves, were waiting for them.

“Well…?” Bofur couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“He’s got a foul headache and we can’t give him anything for another hour.” Narcissa replied. “But he’s doing fine… So far, he’s regained a reasonable grasp of whatever languages he spoke prior to the injury. How much more he’ll regain is undetermined, only time will tell.”

“But he’s gonna be alright?” Bombur asked.

“Oh, yes, certainly. Better than prior to the potion.” Narcissa answered. “Once this headache is gone, he should be just fine.”

“So, this means that you’re ready to treat Thorin?” Harry asked.

“Yes, Fleur’s already alerted Severus and he’s bringing Thorin’s potion.” Narcissa nodded. “I know that you all want to see him back on his feet, but his room is simply too small for all of you to be present. I understand that some of you must be there, as witnesses for the public, but I have to limit the number of people in the room due to space restraints.”

“Aye, his room might large but it’s not that large.” Dáin nodded.

“So, who gets to go in?” Fíli asked.

“Fíli and Kíli are his heirs, if… heaven forbid… something did go wrong, one of them would be King. Dáin is to be witness for his people. Oín as healer for the dwarves. Balin, Legolas, Bard and Harry as witnesses for their people, we’ve had a number of requests for updates on Thorin’s condition, from different directions.” Narcissa pointed to each person as she named them. “You may go in, but please wait quietly. Once Severus arrives, it shan’t be long before we begin.”

“Thank you, Lady Narcissa.” Balin and Dáin bowed to the witch and quickly headed into Thorin’s room.

Fíli and Kíli gave Narcissa a bow and Kíli paused before giving Fíli and Parvati a quick smile.

“Come on, Fíli.” The soon to betrothed pair parted reluctantly, but Fíli followed his brother.

“This way, Master Bard.” Balin lead the bargeman into the appropriate room.

“I’ll watch over Harry for you, Charlie.” Legolas said quietly and gently lifted Harry to his feet, Oín on the other side of the young wizard.

“Thanks.” The redhead replied.

Two hours later, Thorin sat upright on his bed, carefully propped up by a host of cushions and pillows. An ornate portable writing desk sat on a large cushion across his lap, a sheaf of parchment to one side, a candle, sealing wax and the royal signet of Erebor to the other.

He had listened carefully as Bard, who was acting as an impartial observer, had read out the conditions and clauses of the contract that was the first step in welding Fíli and Parvati’s lives together.

“Lady Parvati?” Bard questioned. “I must ask. Do you agree to these conditions? I’ve not heard of anyone requiring that their physical stature be… shrunk…”

“That was my suggestion, Master Bard.” Parvati replied sharply. “Our potions Master has also created a potion that will increase my life span to match Fíli’s, so between that and the mass-reduction potion, neither height nor age should significantly impact our union.”

“Ah, I had to ask, it’s not a common clause.” Bard tried to explain.

“I understand, but it did take almost a week to convince Thorin and Fíli of the benefits of such an action.” Parvati said.

“As you say, milady.” Bard gave a stunted bow. “Are there any objections?” No-one said anything. “No? Very well. Potions Master Snape? Would you be so kind as to copy this document. There should be four copies of this document, one for the Royal Archives, one for Prince Fíli’s family, one for Lady Parvati’s family and one that I, as impartial observer, keep.” When Severus held up his wand, Bard laid the document on the portable desk and Severus flicked his wand, three blank sheets of parchment became identical copies. Bard quickly looked them over before nodding and laying the four sheets in front of Thorin. “If Prince Thorin would sign each sheet, here and here…?” He waited while Thorin did so before handing the sheets to Draco. “Thank you. Lord Malfoy? If you would sign alongside Prince Thorin?” Once Draco had signed, he took back the sheets. “Both of you have requested that Lady Parvati and prince Fíli sign these as well. Lady Parvati? Prince Fíli? Are you both in agreeance?” The two in question nodded and Bard handed over the sheets, watching as they were quickly signed and handed back. “Congratulations Lady Parvati, Prince Fíli. Is there anything else I can do for you today?”

“Thank you, Master Bard, but no, nothing else today. However, if you would care to join us for luncheon, Bilbo’s kitchen crew have put together a selection of roast birds.” Fíli replied.

“Hmm… Back to the ruins of Dale and toil away at rebuilding the ruins of my ancestor’s house or stay here and sup in warmth…? Hmm…” Bard shrugged. “I doubt anyone would reject such an offer, Prince Fíli. My thanks.” He said as he bowed.

The days passed and winter drew its grip ever tighter on the mountain. Gandalf reappeared, he wandered the repaired halls of Erebor and listened as the Northern Council laid out the history of its creation.

“So…? Basically… Thorin felt that between the four groups we represented a good chunk of the north and as a result of that it was down to us to protect it.” Fíli explained. “But he also wanted it to be a little removed from each… country, as it were… so Headley was the one to suggest that we treat the Council as a separate entity and not have those who rule their own people, sit on the Council.”

Gandalf nodded, slowly. “Hence you, young Headley, Miss Sigrid and Kressian.” It wasn’t phrased as a question.

“Exactly.” Fíli nodded. “If and when one of us are required to take another position, we have to surrender our Council seat.”

“Yes… Yes, I can see that working…” The old wizard continued to nod.

“And the rebuilding is well underway.” Kíli added. “Dáin lent Thorin a Cohort of builders and their families, they’re working their way through the living quarters of the mountain and Dale. Initially they were all for getting the mines up and going, until we asked where their families were going to live, then they were solely focused on the living quarters.”

“The magicals are helping there, too. Instead of having to use winches and cranes, one of the magicals can levitate stones into position.” Fíli went on.

“Professor McGonagall and Charlie are using the rebuilding as a part of our class practicals.” Kíli said. “Few of us are any good at it yet. Ori is managing better than Fíli or I and Nori is far worse than either of us. We haven’t begun the theory behind anything but the few spells that we’re practicing, Charlie said that when we’ve mastered what we’re working on, then he’ll move us onto the next set. Until then, we just have to practice.”

“Practice makes perfect, Uncle says.” Fíli nodded.

“I see…” Gandalf sat back and lit his pipe. “And when will the wedding take place?”

“Oh, Fíli and Parvati won’t be until Amad gets here.” Kíli smirked. “Harry and Charlie are on the winter solstice. Padma and Justin are the same days as Fíli and Parvati. They’re twins. Sirius and Remus are tomorrow. And Seamus and Dean only signed their betrothal contract this morning.”

“Betrothal contract?” Gandalf asked.

“Oh, sure. Fred and Katie, George and Angelina, Lee and Alicia, all have betrothal contracts in place.” Fíli replied.

“Not young Harry and… who was it? Charlie?”

“No, they decided to go straight to getting married.” Fíli answered.

“The problem with a contract betrothal between two magicals, is that they have to wait for no less than three solstices to pass before they can progress to a marriage contract.” Kíli snickered. “No rushing into anything, there.”

“Ah…” Gandalf sighed, quietly. “And what of Bilbo Baggins?”

“Uh… yeah… aunty Bilbo…” Fíli tried not to laugh, truly he did.

“Aunty Bilbo?” Gandalf’s brows rose.

“Thorin’s courting him, but the silly little hobbit hasn’t realised it yet.” Kíli muttered.

“We’re all hoping he figures it out, or someone’s going to have to tell him.” Fíli shrugged. “At least... _**before**_ Thorin presents him with a contract.”

“Uh… yes, that would be…” Gandalf trailed off.

“Difficult.”

“Loud.” Fíli and Kíli spoke together.

“Yes.” Gandalf nodded. “And what of notifying your mother, Princess Dís?”

“Balin and Dwalin are doing that. They took Oliver and Garrick with them.” Fíli answered.

“Garrick Ollivander, the wand maker.” Kíli cut in.

“Yes, him. Now, shut up. Kí.” Fíli smacked at Kíli’s shoulder. “They left here three mornings ago. We estimate, given the distances involved that it should take them a week to get to Ered Luin.”

“A week?” Gandalf blinked in shock.

“One day to Beorn’s. A second to Rivendell. A third to Bilbo’s. And a fourth to Ered Luin. That gives them three days to speak to Elrond and Bilbo’s cousin Fortinbras, who is the current Thain, about setting up carpet terminals.” Fíli went on, as though Gandalf hadn’t interrupted. “At this point, Parvati, Padma and Lavender want change-over terminals near the river Anduin and another somewhere near Rivendell. With a number of pick-up-drop-off points. Here at Erebor, at Eryn Galen, at Hobbiton, Ered Luin. Legolas is sending an envoy to Lothlorien to inquire about interest for one there and another at the Grey Havens.” He shrugged. “If there’s interest, we’ll send someone to meet and work out the finer details. But we’re all agreed. Getting our people back from Ered Luin comes first. We can worry about the rest later.”

Harry watched on as his beloved godfather leant forward awkwardly and signed his name on a piece of parchment, his expanded waistline clearly limiting his movements.

“Well done, boys.” Harry heard McGonagall whisper and saw Sirius give her a quick smile.

“Congratulations.” Thorin spoke quietly to the two wizards before turning his attention to those that filled the Hall. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you… Sirius and Remus, Lord and Consort Black!”

The cheers erupted and filled the Hall, closely followed by balls of sparks and fountains of fireworks from those that held a wand.

An hour later, the Hogwarts contingent met with their elven and dwarven counterparts in the royal guest wing, the only place large enough to house them all, outside of the public spaces. A table in the middle of the room, groaned under the weight of the food laid upon it, platters of meats, vegetables and sweets carefully laid to maximise the space available.

Harry leant back against Charlie, Teddy resting on his shoulder, and swayed his head in time to the music, as Sirius and Remus pretended to dance.

“You know, for wizards that can fight as well as they can, neither of them have a sense of rhythm, do they?” Charlie's voice rumbled slightly, a sign that her was trying not to laugh.

“Nope, and McGonagall says they’ve never been any better.” Harry grinned.

“They look happy.” Ollivander said from his seat on the other side of Charlie.

“They do.” Harry nodded. “They deserve it.”

“They do.” Ollivander agreed and raised an eyebrow as Harry’s stomach growled.

“Here, gimme Teddy and you get something to quiet that beast.” Charlie laughed.

Harry huffed but did as his fiancé suggested. Rising to his feet he began to make his way towards the table.

He didn’t get there.

A blast of fire filled the room, causing a few people to scream or yell. As the flames died out, Harry saw familiar red and gold feathers.

“Fawkes?!” He gasped.

A feeble trill was all that answered him as the bird’s wings began to give out. It was then that Harry realised Fawkes wasn’t alone, there were too many wings and claws for one bird and not all of the feathers were red, gold or black.

“Oh, gods…” Charlie's whisper was echoed by Ollivander’s.

Harry leapt forward and slid to his knees under the mass of feathers, stunned to find a basket of twigs in his lap.

“Help!” He gasped.

Charlie passed Teddy, still asleep, to Ollivander and joined Harry on the floor. “Steady, Harry, stay still. That’s a phoenix nest.”

“I can see that Charlie.” Harry snapped.

“No, Harry, you don’t understand.” Charlie shook his head. “Nests are incredibly rare. Phoenixes only lay one egg once every two hundred years. The only person to have successfully hatched a phoenix from the egg, is Godric Gryffindor, and that’s rumoured to be Fawkes. The eggs have to be kept at a specific temperature for days, at least three, and an egg will only hatch on a solstice. As a result, maybe one in a thousand eggs hatch and less than that will survive to their first maturity. They’re completely defenceless as chicks.”

“Oh…” Harry breathed.

“Yeah… and none of these will be Fawkes’ eggs, phoenixes don’t lay during their last life. And Fawkes wouldn’t have given up feathers and tears if he wasn’t on his last life.”

“Oh, Fawkes…” Harry whispered, hope in heart fading.

“I know…” Charlie wiped a tear from Harry’s cheek, ignoring those that watched them. “But he’s done the next best thing he could. He brought you an egg. That’s a huge honour, Harry, but the really weird thing about phoenixes is that while they will give people eggs, they never give them without the approval of the entire phoenix population.” Charlie explained. “In the wild, when a phoenix is on their last life, they will use their last burning to incubate eggs, never their own and never more than two. How many eggs are there?” He didn’t even try to look, he just asked Harry.

“Ah… Charlie…?” Harry’s eyes widened comically, as he counted. “How many phoenix eggs are there likely to be at any one time?”

“In the wild? We estimate less than fifteen at any given time. As for domesticated phoenixes, we only know of three and to date no domesticated phoenix is recorded as ever having laid eggs. Why?”

“Um… I think I have all the eggs… and then some...” Harry whispered.

“How many?” Charlie repeated.

“Twenty-seven…”


	31. Chapter 31

_“Ah… Charlie…?” Harry’s eyes widened comically, as he counted. “How many phoenix eggs are there likely to be at any one time?”_

_“In the wild, we estimate about fifteen to twenty at any given point. As for domesticated phoenixes, we only know of three and to date no domesticated phoenix is recorded as ever having laid eggs. Why?”_

_“Um… I think I have all of the eggs…” Harry whispered._

_“How many?” Charlie repeated._

_“Twenty-seven…”_

The redhead man looked from one person to the next, shock clear on his face.

“Are you freaking **_kidding?!”_** He screeched.

“No.” The eldest of the four wizards facing him, sighed. “No, we’re not.”

“Bollocks.” Ron Weasley moaned.

“Yesh, definitely.” Viktor Krumm’s heavy accent had softened over the ten year since the Tri-Wizard Tournament but it was still there.

“And mum knows?” Ron asked.

“I can’t be certain, but I would say so. Ginny’s not good enough at potions to do this, herself.” Arthur closed his eyes in pain at the thought that his beloved wife would do such a thing, but there was just no other way for it to happen. “And she always believed that Ginny would marry Harry.” He glanced at the fifth wizard. “Sorry, Uric.”

“No, do not be sorry. Help me to fix this.” The blonde quidditch star replied.

“Alright. How did it happen? How did you find out, Uric?” Ron stood and began to pace, Arthur recognising his son’s ‘planning’ behaviour.

“Ginny gave birth to twins. That started my suspicions. There are no twins in my heritage, but there are in hers, so I waved it off. Then I saw the babies. The only non-blondes in my family are those that married in.” He paused. “At least, for the last five hundred years, anyway.”

“The babies have black hair.” Arthur commented.

“Yes.” Uric nodded. “So, I quietly tested them. They are not mine. I would love them and raise them, but I found Ginevra’s journal. In it she states that once the babies are six months old, she will divorce me and use the children to claim the remains of Potter’s estates and all royalties centred around his name.”

Ron snorted and waved a hand for Uric to continue.

“I went to Viktor, he is my captain, after all. He brought me to Arthur, who fire-called the Minister. And here we are…” Uric sighed.

“We have to protect the children.” Ron started.

“Yes… and… No…” Arthur corrected him. “Until they’re six months old, they’re safe, Ginny won’t let anything happen to them, until then.” Arthur stood moved to stand in front of the fireplace, before turning to face the four men. Uric blinked, this was not his soft and gentle father-in-law, this was the warrior that had faced Voldemort and his entire army and defied them all. “No, first, we need to ensure she can’t do this again. We need to cleanse this entire house, of anything that bears any physical traces of Harry. Clothes, skin, hair, blood, everything. Then we need to do the same to Uric’s house. And a tracking spell, just to make certain she hasn’t stashed anything, somewhere else. Then we can look at the children.” All five men nodded.

“Arthur?” Kingsley asked.

“Yes?”

“There’s something else to take into consideration.” The Minister said.

“Yes…?” Arthur frowned.

“My term as Minister ends in two days.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. If you mean to send the children after Harry… if… Well, it has to happen by five o’clock, tomorrow afternoon. After that, I can’t get you into the Ministry, let alone the DoM, again.” Kingsley sighed.

“Send them…?” Ron started. “Dad? What does Kingsley mean, send them after Harry?”

“Oh, Ronnie…” Arthur sighed. “Harry going through the veil makes him dead, legally, at least. He has no legal standing. Ginny, however, is alive. That means that no matter how she did it, the children will remain hers, legally. We can stop her from doing it again, but unless we can prove her to be an unfit mother, we can’t take the children off of her, legally. There’s no country in the world that would back us, if we did that.”

“Yes, the only way to remove the children, in such a way that they can’t be returned to her, or used by her, is to send them into the veil after Harry.” Kingsley agreed.

“Oh, bollocks.” Ron said again.

“And Kingsley’s term finishes at five o’clock tomorrow afternoon…” Arthur added.

“ ** _Bollocks_**.” Ron cursed viciously.

“Exactly…” Arthur sighed.

“You want to… what…?” Ron demanded.

“I want to take the children through the veil to join their father.” Uric said. “Until someone tests them, I am legally their father, so it falls to me to take them.”

“No.” Ron argued. “I will. Ginny and I are estranged and are publicly feuding. And add to that, it’s also public knowledge that I’ve been seeing a mind-healer since the war… Only a few people would think it strange that I react in such a vindictive manner.”

Arthur closed his eyes and sighed quietly. “Unfortunately, he’s right.”

“And Uric’s got family, if he were to do this, there’s every possibility that Ginevra may accuse them of being complicit with him and have them charged.” Kingsley said.

“Plus, we have no idea what type of environment they will be going into, Ron is far more comfortable in the muggle world, than you are, and he’s also a very capable warrior.” Viktor said.

“That is true…” Uric nodded.

“But that means that we have a huge amount of things to do, before five tomorrow.” Ron said.

“I’ll do a search here, if Uric does the same at their place.” Arthur said.

“And I’ll talk to Croaker. You’re going to need a trunk like Harry’s.”

“So, I guess that I’ll close up my workshop and speak to the goblins, then?” Ron said.

“You’ll also need to hit the shops. Those kids are going to need a heap of stuff. Diapers, formula, clothes and toys, just to get you started.” Kingsley added.

“And you’ll need food and clothes for yourself, too.” Arthur said.

“Oh, hell.” Ron muttered.

“And that’s not to mention any of your personal things.” Kingsley said.

“What do we tell Ginny?” Uric asked.

“We don’t.” Ron answered. “In fact… before we get too far into this, you need to forget any suspicions you might have about the kids.”

“What? Why?” Uric frowned in confusion.

“Plausible deniability.” Kingsley answered, even though he raised an eyebrow to Ron.

“Exactly.” Ron nodded back. “It would be best if you knew nothing about what we’re planning to do.”

“Obliviate me, you mean?” Uric's eyes went wide.

“Yes, but we can’t until you’ve searched your house for anything connected to Harry.” Kingsley warned.

“Well, that should be fine. Ginny is with Molly today and I know that she planned to go clothes shopping tomorrow. It should hopefully only take a few minutes to scan for anything Potter related. Removing it might be a little more difficult, depending on what wards have been placed.” Uric said.

“Wards are definitely not Ginny’s strength, spell-wise.” Ron shrugged. "She's far better at offensive magics than passive ones. Curses, hexes and jinxes? She can cast them, no worries. But passive magics? Shields, wards, notice-me-nots and the like? No. She no good at them."

“And if they’re on property owned by you, as head of her married house, you can override them, just as I can, here.” Arthur added.

“Oh, yes, I had forgotten that.” Uric hummed.

“Locate any stashes, but don’t remove them, not until tomorrow morning. We don’t want to alert her before we’re ready to move.” Kingsley warned.

“I’ll encourage Molly to go with Ginny again, tomorrow, I can use the excuse of wanting time with Uric and the babies, as male bonding time.” Arthur suggested.

“I’ll pick a fight with Ginny this evening, nothing serious, nothing new. Nothing that would seem to be out of the ordinary for us, for the last few years.” Ron added.

“Alright, that sounds fine. Any questions?” Kingsley asked. “No? Great. Ron, you come with me, now and we’ll go and speak to Croaker. Let’s meet tomorrow morning and review where we’re at and what we still need to do.” He stood and made his way to the floo-fireplace.

Ron nodded and joined Kingsley in front of the fireplace.

The meeting with Croaker went quickly and within minutes Ron had a trunk ready to go. All he had to do was fill it. A short stop at Gringotts to speak with the goblins and he had his first items, a carefully packed armoury consisting of a broad axe, a machete-like short-sword, a long scimitar with matching dagger, a cudgel with matching staff, a pole-axe, four sets of throwing knives, a pair of single-handed crossbows, a pair of boot daggers, a pair of middle-eastern khanjar-styled daggers, three different length short-swords, four full length swords, five shields of different sizes and a box of phials containing training memories. The goblins had also converted the contents of his vault to unstamped gold, jewellery and gems, stating that these were much the same as what Hermione had ordered for Harry, herself and the others that went with them.

When Ron had asked how he was supposed to purchase items if the goblins had converted his ʛalleons to gold, he was told that Gringotts still had a vault with ʛalleons left over from Hermione’s shopping spree, and as per her directions, anyone joining Harry by entering the veil, was to have access to those funds. A white card with the Gringotts logo was slid across the table towards him. Ron picked it up and after being assured that it would work in either the muggle or wizarding world, he put it in his pocket and left the bank.

He walked from the bank towards the apparition point tucked away beside the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, a thoughtful expression on his face. Making a decision, he apparated away. Appearing in front of the shrieking shack, he carefully layered himself in glamours. Four layers to be exact. He had a lot of places to go and if he wore his own face, it would leave a trail for Ginny and the Aurors to follow.

“I can’t believe Harry’s been gone for… huh… seven years. I can’t believe he’s been gone for seven years and now I’m about to do something even **_he_** would have thought twice about.” He muttered. “Kidnapping babies. God, how wrong is that? But leaving them with Ginny? No, that’s even worse… Right, four layers should be enough, most wards only drop one glamour. The only place that does more is… ooh… Gringotts and Wheezes. Yeah, let’s avoid them.” He shrugged. “Time to get shopping… I hate shopping…” He took a deep breath and apparated away.

Five minutes before five o’clock the next afternoon, Ron stood beside Croaker, the Unspeakable having lead him through the hidden passages of the Ministry. now, they stood in the veil chamber, waiting for Arthur to arrive with the babies.

Sounds of explosions, crashes and rumbles erupted outside the room.

“What the…?” Ron spun in the direction of the chamber’s door and took one step.

“No!” Croaker snapped. “You can’t help, you need to be here when Arthur arrives, or this is all for nothing.” The heavily veiled wizard reminded him.

“But-” Ron got no further than that, as the chambers door opened.

“We got problems.” Kingsley panted as he ran into the chamber. “Ginny or Molly twigged. They alerted the Aurors.”

“They’re only moments behind us.” Arthur wheezed for breath. “They got Viktor, a cutting curse across the neck and shoulder.”

“Dead before he hit the floor.” Kingsley added. “Good thing we obliviated Uric and left him tied up, at their cottage. We’ve no choice now, we either all go or those that stay are dead.” He flicked his wand at his heavily bleeding arm and healed the wound.

“Where are the kids?” Ron demanded, frowning.

“Here.” Arthur unbuttoned his robe and opened it, showing the two sleeping infants in their slings. “I gave them light sleeping drafts, I didn’t want them to wake and cry at the wrong time.”

“Oh, thank god.” Ron breathed, then winced as an explosion echoed outside the chamber.

“I set off a few things the twins’ left when they moved out, mostly fireworks and a handful of Decoy Detonators.” Arthur flinched at a particularly close blast. “But I don’t think that’s going to hold the Aurors off for long.”

“You have to go.” Croaker pushed them towards the veil. “Now. That was only yards away. Go!”

“Ron, grab hold of Arthur, we can’t afford to be separated.” Kingsley stepped up to Arthur's side and gripped his wrist firmly.

“Kingsley?” Ron asked.

“Robards and Williamson saw me shielding Arthur, if I stay, the chances are that I’ll be cut down like Viktor. No, Ron, my only chance is going with you, now.” Kingsley pulled the two redheads towards the veil. “Now, come on, while we still can.”

Arthur and Ron exchanged glances and both nodded.

“Let’s go.” As one the three men stepped into the veil.

A heart-stopping, dizzying few moments later and blackness faded into light. Ron looked around them, his eyes wide.

“Okay…” He trailed off. “This is… weird.” He whispered.

“Just a little.” Arthur agreed, while Kingsley just nodded.

All around them were hills, tall but not enough to be mountains. Rocks, landslips and grass as far as the eye could see.

“Definitely not earth, then.” Ron muttered.

“What makes you say that?” Kingsley asked.

“Two moons, earth only has one.” Ron raised his hand beside his head, a finger pointing up.

Kingsley tilted his head back and studied the clearly visible two moons, one almost full and the other a sharp crescent.

“Ah, right…”

“Oh, hello, Charlie.” A new voice had the three wizards turning around to face a teenage boy. “We weren’t expecting…” The boy frowned. “You’re not Charlie.” He said. “Who are you? And what are you doing out here? The terminal is back that way.” He gestured over his shoulder.

“Ah, hello. Ron Weasley, pleased to meet you.” Ron held out a hand for the boy to shake.

“Hello, I’m Estel.” He shook Ron's hand. “Do you know Charlie? You have the same family name.”

“Yes, I do, Charlie is my brother. One of them, anyway.” Ron said.

“Brother? Really?” Estel asked eagerly. “What’s it like to have brothers? I don’t have any.”

“Loud is the first thing that comes to mind.” Ron grinned. “You mentioned you weren’t expecting him? Can we get a message to him?” Ron was hesitant to send a Patronus, who knew if these people were aware of magic?

“If we ask at the terminal, surely one of the fliers will take a message. Come on, this way, I’ll take you back to the terminal and we’ll see what we can sort out.” Estel assured them. The lad lead them up out of the little valley they were in and around a few rocks. “There’s the terminal.” He pointed to a tall outcropping of rock, jutting up out of the ground, a series of stone arches rising gracefully from its summit.

“Oh, my…” Arthur exclaimed.

“Yeah, they did a good job, didn’t they?” Estel lead them to a set of broad stone steps. “Let’s go up, the flight from Ered Luin and Hobbiton should be in soon.”

Flight? Kingsley looked Arthur, who looked just as confused. But that didn’t stop them from following the lad. Up the steps and out on flagstone observation platform, where the three paused to look around.

“Weasel?” A sharp voice addressed them from their left.

Ron turned in that direction, only to face a familiar blonde.

“Ferret?” He gasped.

“Weasel! How the devil did you get here?” Draco Malfoy demanded.

“Same way Harry did. We walked into the veil.” Ron answered, he was no longer consumed with rage at the blonde, now all he felt was relief at being presented with a familiar face.

“The Veil? Why would you…?” Draco trailed off. “What happened.?” The second question was snapped out.

“Ginny.” Was all Ron answered.

“The Weaselette? Oh, that answers **_so_** much.” Draco muttered.

“You have no idea.” Ron sighed.

“What did she do this time?” Draco muttered.

“She and mum concocted a potion, using god knows what, that made her pregnant with Harry’s children.” Ron replied.

“She did **_what?_** ” Draco’s voice went hard and cold.

“Yeah. Pretty much my reaction, too.” Ron snorted. “Stupid bitch.”

Draco’s brows rose. “Do I detect a rift in the family?” A smirk twitched at Draco’s lips.

“No. You detect a complete and utter fucking **_breakdown_** in the family.” Ron sneered.

“I see.” Draco said. “What happened to the children?”

“Dad’s go them.” Ron jerked a thumb over his shoulder and for the first time, Draco realised that Ron wasn’t alone.

“Ah.” Draco blinked. “Welcome to Arda, Minister, Mr Weasley.”

“Thank you, Mr Malfoy.” Kingsley’s rich baritone voice was warm, but very tired.

“What else happened?” Draco frowned at the Minister, there was blood on his robes.

“Ginny, or maybe Molly, alerted the Aurors, we had to fight to get to the veil. They killed Viktor in the atrium.” Kingsley answered.

“Viktor? Krumm?” Draco asked.

“Yes. He was helping us.” Arthur answered.

“How old are the children?” Draco was running through various options in his mind.

“Six days.” Arthur said.

“Damn, no apparating then.” He sighed. “Alright. In that case the best option we have is to send you on the next flight east.” He turned the lad that was hanging back near the steps. “Thank you, Estel, I'll see that they get to Erebor and their families.”

“Yes, Mr Draco.” The boy said and disappeared back down the steps.

“Flight?” Kingsley asked, when Draco faced them again.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know about that, would you?” Draco muttered. “Right. Padma, Parvati and Lavender set up Hogwarts’ Carpets, a flying carpet service. I’m standing in for Parvati, she’s eight months pregnant and having a rough time.”

“Flying carpets?” Kingsley blinked.

“Yeah, they have a number of flights.” Draco pointed to a large noticeboard. “Four that go East-West, Erebor to Ered Luin, with stops at Hobbiton, here at Weathertop, Rivendell and the Beornings. And one that goes North-South, from the Beornings terminal to Lothlorien. You’ve good timing, there’s two flights headed East, due to either stop here or go passed, in a matter of minutes, Lee’s piloting one, while Bifur’s got the other.”

“Lee? Lee Jordan?” Ron asked.

“Yep. His flight is **_supposed_** to be a direct Hobbiton to Erebor cargo flight, but I think he’d make a stop to pick you up. I can Patronus someone to meet you at the other end.” Draco offered.

“Why are you helping us?” Arthur asked. “Weasleys and Malfoys have been feuding for years. What changed?”

“Bill adopted Hermione and Luna into the Weasley family. I married Hermione, that makes you my father-in-law and brother-in-law. Why wouldn’t I help family? Besides, Mione would likely hex me if I didn’t.” Draco shrugged.

“She would.” Ron snorted. “Alright. How do we do this?” His head spinning with the idea that a Malfoy married a muggleborn.

Draco didn’t answer him, but he did cast a Patronus. “Message to Lee. Need you to do an emergency pick-up at Weathertop for Erebor. Weasleys and infants involved.” The silver hawk flew a few yards and vanished in a flash of silver/white light. “Cargo carpets only have a couple of seats, so I hope you have your wands, you might need to conjure-up chairs for yourselves.” He gestured and the three wizards followed him. “Oh and the cargo carpets fly a lot faster than the passenger carpets, so you might want to cast some shields and warming charms on the infants, the windchill can be vicious.” He leant over a telescope. “Let’s see how far out they are…” He placed his eye to the viewer and studied the image it presented. “There they are.” He stood up. “Want a look?”

Ron hesitated but his curiosity got the better of him and he stepped forward. Lowering his eye to the telescope he saw two objects coming towards them, one significantly larger and faster than the other.

“There’s two. Which is which?” He asked.

“Oh, the passenger carpet from Ered Luin and Hobbiton is due in about half an hour, but the cargo carpet is only a few minutes away.” Draco explained. “The carpet does have a tent, so you can always take the children in there, it’s only basic though it does have a bathroom.”

“I’m here.” Another familiar voice yelled from an archway.

“Coming.” Draco yelled back. “Come on, this way. You should get to Erebor in about six hours, maybe a little les, depending on the wind, sometimes it cuts the trip by an hour or so.” He lead the three wizards up a set of steps to a deck, where a large oriental styled carpet floated.

“Ron?!” Lee gasped. “Ron? Is that really you?”

“Hey, Lee, how’re you doing?” Ron gave him a wave. “You remember dad and Kingsley, yeah?”

“Yeah. Hey Mr Weasley, Minister.” Lee blinked in surprise before looking back at Ron. “What in hell are you doing here?”

“Long story.” Draco cut in. “How about you get moving and they can fill you in along the way. Bifur’s getting close. Lee, you catch them up on… everything. Okay?”

“Right.” Lee nodded quickly. “Come aboard. No passengers today, so pick a chair, any chair.”

“Thanks, mate.” Ron stepped onto the carpet and pulled his wand from his sleeve, he waved it in a circular motion, pointing mostly towards the carpet and a wide crib formed before their eyes. “There you are, dad. Put the babies in there, I’ve shielded it against wind and chills, but left it open to fresh air.”

“Nicely done, Ron.” Arthur carefully opened his robe and extracted a baby from an odd-looking sling/pouch thing. He laid it in the crib and quickly did the same with a second child.

“Yours, Ron?” Lee asked as he raised the carpet and sent it in an easterly direction.

“Nah, mate. Ginny and mum knocked up a potion to get Ginny pregnant with Harry’s kids. Don’t know the exact details, but…”

The carpet dipped. “She **_what?!_** ” Lee screeched before quickly righting the carpet.

“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too. And Malfoy’s.” Ron laughed.

“Oh, hell…” Lee muttered.

“Forget about her, tell us about what’s going on here.” Ron begged. “What’s Malfoy doing here?”


	32. Chapter 32

_“Nah, mate. Ginny and mum knocked up a potion to get Ginny pregnant with Harry’s kids. Don’t know the exact details, but…”_

_The carpet dipped. “She **what?!** ” Lee screeched before quickly righting the carpet._

_“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too. And Malfoy’s.” Ron laughed._

_“Oh, hell…” Lee muttered._

_“Forget about her, tell us about what’s going on here.” Ron begged. “What’s Malfoy doing here?”_

As the carpet flowed down from the mountains, Ron shook his head. “Okay, that’s just typical of Harry’s luck.” This was Ron’s response to Lee’s explanation of how Hermione had hidden people in a trunk without telling Harry and of the lead-up to the Battle of Erebor, as it was being called.

“Yes, Hermione seems to think so, too.” Lee laughed.

“What happened after the Battle?” Kingsley asked.

“After the Battle? Well Miss Sissy and Fleur gave Thorin a dose of Severus’ de-aging potion and followed that up with two doses of a regeneration potion. Then it-”

“Regeneration? Is that different from the de-aging potion?” Ron asked.

“Yeah, the de-aging potion literally reverses your age, but the regeneration potion only repairs any damage done within a set period of time.” Lee replied.

“So, why give him both?” Arthur asked.

“De-aging doesn’t work quite right on dwarves, it doesn’t make them younger, it just heals some of the damage. That’s where Severus got the idea for the regeneration potion.” Lee explained and the three men nodded. “Severus gave him a de-aging potion that repaired most of the injuries that he got in the Battle but it didn’t change his age and because that was its primary focus, it didn’t repair **_all_** the damage from his injuries. So Severus went to work with Draco and between them… and Hermione and Luna, who did the arithmancy… they came up with a regeneration potion, that was supposed to repair any damage to a body that had been caused within a set amount of time, depending on the dosage given. Thorin got dosed twice, a week apart, as his injuries were pretty bad and Severus wasn’t absolutely certain how the potion would react to a dwarf’s body as opposed to a human one. Thankfully, it worked.”

When the babies began to wake and cry, there was a few minutes of frenetic action, as nappies were changed and bottles prepared. Arthur and Ron settled themselves back in their seats, a baby in their arms, happily sucking away at a bottle of milk.

“Things were quiet for a bit, while we worked on rebuilding Erebor, on building an Outpost for Legolas and a castle for Hogwarts.” Lee went one once everyone was settled again. “During that time, Padma, Parvati and Lavender convinced Thorin to let them build a depot-slash-terminal for their carpet service. It wasn’t a hard sell. Parvati was to marry Fíli once dwarves from Ered Luin were resettled in Erebor. Fíli and Kíli’s mother, Lady Dís, was the first to arrive, Thorin sent Balin and Fíli with Colin and Oliver to let Lady Dís and the rest of their people know that the Company had been successful and to bring the first wave back.”

“Oliver must have hated being stuck on a carpet.” Ron laughed.

“You have no idea.” Lee snorted. “But he wasn’t letting Colin go without him. They used a spare trunk to bring back pretty much everything that belonged to Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and Dís. Balin did the same with his and Dwalin's stuff and announced that the rest of the Company would be taking it in turns to return and pack up their families and possessions.”

There was another pause while the babies were burped and laid back in their cribs and each of the wizards took turns to visit the tent’s bathroom. Drinks and snacks were brought out and shared among them.

“While all that was going on, Harry and Charlie got married, just the Company, Legolas, Tauriel, Kressian and us, as witnesses.” Lee laughed fondly. “There were a few snickers when Harry had Hermione stand as his best witch, but no-one was really all that surprised. Nothing changed until mid-summer when Parvati and Fíli married, that was a whole mountain-wide celebration, but it did cause a stir as, in all the fuss and bother, Thorin forgot that he hadn’t actually been **_crowned_** as King Under the Mountain. No-one seemed too concerned, so he just shoved the crowning to the background, it was done the same morning as the wedding. Padma and Justin married later that month, again just quiet, Company, Outpost and Hogwarts. Sirius and Fleur both gave birth that summer, Fleur in May and Sirius in June, both girls. Harry nearly laughed himself sick at Sirius having to deal with a daughter. Fleur’s daughter, Victoire and Sirius’ Dorea are turning out to be little hellions, not a week goes by without either Fleur or Sirius running after them screaming.”

“Oh, I have to see that…” Ron snickered.

“You will, I guarantee it. Hermione was the next to drop, she and Draco have twins, Belladora and Alexander, both take after their father in looks, but they have their mother’s brains, they’re already sitting in on lessons when they can.”

“What else do you expect Hermione’s kids to do? I mean, really?” Ron huffed.

“Since then, it’s been a regular old pair-up. Luna and Neville, Fred and Angelina, George and Katie, Alicia and I, that was pretty expected. Right?” Lee asked and Ron nodded. “Yeah, figured that wouldn’t surprise you. Seamus and Dean aren’t a surprise, either. Colin and Euan caused a few blinks, but Dennis and Natalie didn’t. Oliver married Master Bard’s daughter, Sigrid, two years ago. Heck even Severus and Miss Sissy got married. We’re not sure about McGonagall and Ollivander. We’re taking bets, that sooner or later we’re going to catch one of them leaving the other’s rooms at some ungodly hour in the morning, either that, or they’re just going to move in together. Bids vary. Thorin and Bilbo are another pairing that’s still unconfirmed, they act like a married couple, but no-one’s managed to catch them in the act. Not for lack of trying, though.”

“Oh, heavens.” Arthur quietly exclaimed, having completely missed that Lee had mentioned Fred.

“Erebor’s mostly rebuilt but some mines are still being cleared and the treasury isn’t finished being sorted, yet. Hogwarts’s Keep is complete, but some of the towers and the walls are still being worked on. The Outpost is done and occupied, but Legolas recently asked for help with an extension to the gardens, Buckbeak’s herd have taken up residence there, as have most of the phoenixes. There are terminals at Ered Luin, Hobbiton, Weathertop, Rivendell, the Beornings, Lothlorien and Erebor, with envoys being sent to Rohan and Minis Tirth next year. There are five passenger flights each day, two going west and the same number come east, one leaves early in the morning and the other leaves at midday and the last goes either to or from Lothlorien, depending on numbers. We still have five cargo flights from Ered Luin to Erebor each week, with a return flight three times a week.”

“Why not pack a trunk and simply apparate?” Ron asked.

“Mostly it’s livestock and that doesn’t apparate too well. Tends to be too draining on the wizard. Carpets also mean that we can do stops along the way. Today was different, today’s flight is a pre-booked flight from Hobbiton to Erebor, it’s the last of the furniture and garden stuff, plants and the like, from Bilbo’s people in the Shire. Bifur’s got a carpet full of hobbits, Bilbo’s with them just to keep everyone calm, but he felt it was easier to send all their things ahead, by a second carpet, that way more hobbits can be transported in one go. We need them, they know farming like no-one else. We’ve had three families for the last few years and they’ve done wonders, but there were only six of them. With the migrants from the few flights that we’ve done this week, we’ll have a hobbit settlement of about one-fifty-ish.”

“I can see the need, with new migrants arriving on an almost daily basis.” Kingsley said.

“Yeah.” Lee agreed. “Erebor’s growing fast. Right now? Natalie, Luna, Lavender and McGonagall are the only witches that came with us, that aren’t either, expecting a baby or nursing one. Seamus just gave birth, last week, Sigrid is due in less than a month and Sirius about a month after her.”

“A regular baby boom, it seems.” Arthur smiled, he loved being around children.

“Oh, yeah. Katie, Angelina and Alicia are all due within a day or two of each other, in about three months. The rest of the girls are anything from three to eight months, before they pop.” Lee laughed. “Even Miss Sissy. Snape as a dad, that’s going to be… interesting…”

Ron blinked a few times. “Don’t want to know, don’t want to know…” He muttered and even Kingsley looked doubtful.

“Ah, he’s not so bad, here. Still snarky and a bit of a git, but we all know that he’s here because he wants to be here.” Lee defended the wizard.

“If you say so…” Ron muttered, he had heard, like everyone else at Hogwarts, of how Snape had truly been Dumbledore’s man and had done what he could to camouflage that while Voldemort was still alive.

“We do.” Lee shrugged. “Look, it’s different here, we’re all here, because we want to be here, not because we have to be. Most of us were muggle raised, we had identities in the muggle world, Hermione said the goblins could have changed the identity of anyone that wanted them to and moved them to the US, Canada or Australia. But that’s not what most of us wanted. Michael Laws did and Hermione saw that the goblins got him out before Umbridge could get to him, but not us, we were all staying. All of us? Well, let’s just say that none of us were going to abandon Harry again, we’d done that once, we weren’t doing it again.”

Ron winced, remembering that he’d abandoned Harry a number of time and even during the height of the war, he’d left Harry and Hermione. In a tent, at night, in the middle of winter, in the middle of a war. Not a good report, there.

“Yeah, you know what I mean.” Lee nodded. “So, you get it. He stood by us, it was our turn to stand by him.” He shrugged. “And we did. None of us regret it.”

“So…” Kingsley tried to change the subject. “You fly carpets, these days?”

“Mostly, yeah.” Lee nodded. “Oh, I still do the commentary at the quidditch games, but that’s usually on the weekends. During the week, I apparate to wherever and fly back to Erebor. Dennis is my counterpart, he flies out from Erebor and apparates back. We do the cargo flights. Bifur and Bombur do the Ered Luin to Erebor passenger flights. Euan and Natalie do the Erebor to Ered Luin passenger flights. Lendalen does the Beornings to Lothlorien passenger flights. And Dean does the Beornings to Lothlorien cargo flight, when there’s a need, which isn’t all that often, about once a month.”

The next few hours were filled with tales and anecdotes of life in Erebor. Like Harry losing Teddy for a few hours in the mountain’s treasury and having to get Smaug to go in and find him before Remus found out, only to find that Teddy was with Remus the whole time. Or Hermione going into labour in the middle of a quidditch match and the entirety of the stadium invading the hospital to anxiously await the birth of the twins. Or Teddy using a combination of accidental and metamorphmagus magics to morph himself into a dwarfling, panicking his fathers and causing Severus and Minerva hours of headaches as they tried to undo it. Or the time that visiting dwarven dignitaries didn’t realise that Padma and Parvati were twins and assumed that Parvati was cheating on Fíli.

As the carpet drew close to the terminal, Ron, Arthur and Kingsley were still chuckling.

“Heads up, lads, we’ve got a welcoming committee.” Lee warned, causing all three men to lift their heads and look in the direction Lee was pointing.

A tall redheaded man stood with a clearly pregnant blonde woman at his side.

“Is that… Bill?” Arthur asked.

“Yeah.” Lee nodded.

“But… his scars…?” Arthur gasped.

“Oh, Miss Sissy and Severus fixed that, a small dose of a de-aging potion and… hey, problem solved.” Lee grinned and brought the carpet to a halt and let it settle down onto the well-marked landing-pad. “Hey, Bill. Look who I found.”

“Hello, Lee, picking up strays, are we?” Bill’s smile was tight, belying the light-hearted greeting.

“Eh, most of them are family, so… yeah, why not?” Lee grunted.

While the two were talking, Ron and Arthur were busy scooping up the babies and settling them into their travel-slings. When they turned to face Bill, the only reaction to the children was a raised brow.

“Well, come along, we’ll take you home and see about getting something sorted out for you.” Bill waved the three tired wizards over.

“Thanks, Bill.” Ron said easily. “How’s things? Lee said you’re still curse-breaking, just that you’re mostly working on coins and jewellery, these days?”

“Yeah, keeps me busy and I’m home every night. A bit different to Gringotts, but every once in a while, there’s a real challenge, so it’s fine.” Bill answered, he wasn’t sure what to make of a confident and comfortable-in-his-own-skin Ron.

“Good to hear. Fleur… beautiful as ever. Almost as pretty as this one.” Ron nodded towards Bill.

“Oui. My Bill draws eyes, no matter where he is.” Fleur smiled, a teasing look thrown Bill’s way. “It is sad times, when a wizard outshines a veela.”

“Oi, be nice.” Bill let his arm slide over her shoulder. “So, Draco didn’t give us much in the way of details. He just said, you’d turned up and that there were problems back in England?” Bill lead them to another carpet and once they were settled, directed it towards the northern edge of what was clearly a reproduction of Hogwarts.

“Yes and no.” Arthur nodded to Ron. “Best if you do the talking, Ron.” He remembered the last discussion that he, Bill and Charlie had had, about Molly, Percy and George’s shop, had been rather… volatile.

“Yeah, probably.” Ron nodded.

“Wait a bit.” Bill pulled the carpet to a stop in a large courtyard that sat nestled between a partially built structure, that Ron thought was supposed to be a smaller version of the portcullis keep, and a tower that was little more than a stone foundation a few feet high. The courtyard was surrounded by a twenty-foot stone wall. “This is us.” He stood and lead them into a cosy timber cottage. “Have a seat. And Ron? Start talking.” He crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, they weren’t going anywhere until he was happy with what they had to say.

“Got it.” Ron nodded. “Short version or long one?”

“Start with the short one and go from there, I’m sure Fleur and I will have questions.” Bill replied.

“Right. Short version.” Ron took a deep breath. “Mum and Ginny made a potion that made Ginny pregnant with Harry’s children.” He laid a gentle hand on the baby resting on his chest. “These children. Ginny’s husband figured it out and tested the kids, found out they were Harry’s and not his, went to Viktor, who brought him to dad and dad brought in Kingsley and I. Uric’s plan was that he was going to bring them to Harry, but Kingsley and I vetoed that. Uric has family, his parents are aged and frail, we were concerned that Ginny might take it out on them, so we temporarily obliviated Uric, he’ll get the memories of his suspicions, back, but not that he brought it to us.”

“Mind, our actions make it quite clear that we did it.” Kingsley added.

“Minister, I don’t want a discussion, I want an explanation, please be quiet.” Bill said quietly, but his voice was firm. “Longer version, now, please.”

Kingsley raised his hands, nodded and sat back.

“We removed anything that traced back, physically, to Harry. We had no idea what mum used to make the potion, so we just summoned everything we could. By the time we finished, there wasn’t even a single picture of Harry left. When he did this at the burrow, dad found a hidden trunk in Ginny’s old room and another in mum’s potions lab. But Uric and Ginny’s house had just one picture, the two of you, Harry and Ginny at your wedding, nothing else.”

“Did you try Aunt Muriel’s?” Bill asked.

“Yep, and Uncle Gareth’s, too. Nothing at Aunt Muriel’s, but there was a lock-box at Uncle Gareth’s. Mum asked him to look after it, he was fuming, when we told him what she’d done and what it contained. Apparently, Aunt Filberta was involved, too. She was the one to get all the ingredients for them, bar the actual Harry based stuff. We banished everything and Uncle Gareth followed behind us and did a second sweep. As far as we can tell, we got everything.”

“Good.” Bill snapped.

“Kingsley took me to Croaker for a trunk, then to Gringotts, I got a small armoury of stuff and a box of memories. Then it was shopping, for me and the babies. I hate shopping. Finally, home to pack up my workshop. This morning, I went muggle, shopping… clothes for me and the kids, food, toys, supplies for my shop, books, some furniture. Last stop was Hogwarts, to tell Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey, they gave me a trunk full of stuff for Hermione and Fleur. Remind me to dig it out.” Ron held up a finger for emphasis.

“Will do. Keep going.” Bill was slowly relaxing his stance.

“Just after four o’clock, I met Croaker outside the Ministry and he smuggled me into the DoM and the veil chamber. A few minutes before five there was an explosion in the Ministry, somewhere. Turns out it was dad, he’d set off some of the twins’ prank explosives and a few Decoy Detonators as a diversion. Didn’t really work, as mum or Ginny had figured out that dad had taken the children and reported him to the Aurors.”

“Shite.” Bill groaned.

“Viktor was caught with a cutting hex. Kingsley said he was dead before he hit the ground. Hexes were cast at dad, but Kingsley blocked them, he was spotted shielding him, by a couple of Aurors. He figured that if the Aurors were using cutting hexes, their only chance of surviving was to join me and enter the veil.”

“Why you?”

“Three reasons. One. Ginny and I have been estranged since Harry went through the veil. Her ‘oh, woe is me, I am Harry’s widow’ shite, really pissed me off, they’d only dated for a couple of months, the year before we went hunting horcruxes. Two. I’ve been seeing a mind-healer since the Battle, St. Mungo's worked out that me being knocked about during our first year at Hogwarts, damaged something, and each subsequent year’s incidents, followed by the fight in the DoM where I got stuck with the tentacles of those brain-things, just made it worse. But to the public, needing to see a mind-healer for that long, indicated that I was mentally unstable. I kinda was, but I’ve been working on fixing it ever since. Three. I was Harry best mate, I might have let him down, but like I said, I’ve been working towards fixing that. Now, I just need to fix it with Harry and I’ll consider it a success.”

Bill nodded as Ron spoke.

“Fair enough. Draco said that other than you being surprised that he was there, you were quite civil with him.” Bill raised a brow.

“Yeah, it took me a year of visits with Langdon, my mind-healer, before I started to get over the whole 'Slytherins are evil' crap. The rebuilding of Hogwarts helped with that. Hermione will be stunned, I went back when classes resumed in September 1999, to do my NEWTs. Many students stayed after the Battle to help, some were Slytherins. When classes didn’t resume that year, more people turned up to help. There was so much to rebuild, we needed all the help we could get. Some towers had to be pulled down and rebuilt from scratch.”

“Oh, mon Dieu…” Fleur whispered.

“The Great Hall needed a new roof. The Central Tower and the Viaduct Towers had to be pretty much pulled down. The dome and cupola on the Astronomy Tower needed replacing. The Reception Chamber was razed to its foundations. The little tower that Filch lived in was gone, it just crumbled into the Lake. The top three floors of the DADA tower needed to be rebuilt. The Entrance Bridge had structural damage and sections had to be removed and rebuilt. The owlery was gone, other than a pile of rubble we only found a few eggs and a handful of just fledging chicks. The Middle courtyard and the Charms Tower seem to be the least damaged. But the greenhouses had to be written off and started over.”

“Merlin…” Bill moaned.

“Yeah, a lot of work. But we got there in the end.” Ron said proudly.

“And you’ve been there ever since?” Bill asked.

“Oh, no. I got an apprenticeship with Uncle Geraint. He taught me so much. Yes, how to make desks, stasis cabinets and desk sets, but also about being… a man? Sorta? Kinda? He taught me how to be good person. It was thanks to him and Langdon that I got my jealousy issues under control and worked out why I felt that way. Then I had to the impulsive actions under control. Uncle Geraint said, ‘being a Gryffindor is all well and good, but being **_only_** a Gryffindor will cut your customer base down to only other Gryffindors’ as ‘a lion’s pride is only his family, but a snake pit, a badger’s den, or an eyrie can have many occupants’. I just needed to get my head around it. it took a while but I think I got there.”

“Really…?” Bill asked.

“Yeah, sometimes I have to remind myself of Langdon’s STEPs to act. If I do that, I’m good.”

“Steps to act?” Fleur asked.

“STEPs to act. S. T. E. P. Stop. Think. Examine. Predict. Then act.” Ron explained the emphasis on certain letters and words. “ ** _Stop_** for a moment, then **_Think_** about it, **_Examine_** my reaction, then **_Predict_** how that reaction would be taken. Then, once I’ve done that, if I’m happy with that reaction, **_then_** act.”

“Oh, I see.” Bill nodded. “And that works for you?”

“So far…” Ron grinned.

“And what do you plan to do with the children?” Fleur asked.

“They’re Harry’s kids. I figure that he deserves the chance to decide that. Either he can keep them, or I’ll help dad raise them.” Ron answered.

“Good answer.” Harry said from behind him.

Ron spun around, one hand protectively holding a baby’s head. “Harry! Hey, mate. Come meet your kids.” Ron grinned.

“Gimme, gimme.” Charlie stepped around Harry and held out his hands to Ron. “Hey, Squirt, hand ‘em over.”

“Hey, Snitch. Here.” Ron carefully passed over the baby he held, before walking over and hugging Harry.

“What are their names?” Charlie asked.

“Uh…” Ron looked at Arthur. “Dad?”

“They aren’t registered yet, I think Ginny was putting it off, just in case the charms picked up that Uric wasn’t their father. I don’t think they have names yet, Ginny never said either way.” Arthur replied.

“Huh… what about getting Sissy to test them? If they aren’t named, we can do that, or if they are, we can maybe look at changing it. Depends on what Ginny inflicted on them.” Charlie huffed.

Harry let his arms fall after hugging Ron before crossing to Arthur. “May I?” He asked, nodded to the baby in Arthur's arms.

“Oh, Harry, of course you can, the boys are yours, after all.” Arthur handed over the baby and made sure that Harry was comfortable holding him, before turning to Bill. “How’s George doing?”

“Fine, dad. He and Fred run a shop, selling everything that Hermione’s been able to magically boost. From brooms to communication mirrors.” Bill assured his father.

“He and… Fred?” Arthur asked.

“Well, yeah, you didn’t really think the twins would work in two different places, did you?” Bill frowned.

“Bill, son… Fred’s dead, remember? He died at Hogwarts.” Arthur whispered.

“Oh, god, you don’t know… Fred… he didn’t die. Almost but Madam Pomfrey was able to pull him through.” Bill closed his eyes with the imagined pain that his father must have felt.

“What?” Arthur gasped. “Why didn’t she tell us?”

“I asked her not to.” A new voice said and Arthur turned around to see the twins standing together in the doorway.

“And a damn good thing he did. Mum was at me within minutes of being told Fred was dead, to sign the shop over to her and Percy.” George added and the only reason Arthur thought it was George, was that he had called the other, Fred. Not that this was any guarantee, but…?

“Fred… George…” Arthur whispered.


	33. Chapter 33

_“Bill, son… Fred’s dead, remember? He died at Hogwarts.” Arthur whispered._

_“Oh, god, you don’t know… Fred… he didn’t die. Almost but Madam Pomfrey was able to pull him through.” Bill closed his eyes with the imagined pain that his father must have felt._

_“What?” Arthur gasped. “Why didn’t she tell us?”_

_“I asked her not to.” A new voice said and Arthur turned around to see the twins standing together in the doorway._

_“And a damn good thing he did. Mum was at me within minutes of being told Fred was dead, to sign the shop over to her and Percy.” George added and the only reason Arthur thought it was George, was that he had called the other, Fred. Not that this was any guarantee, but…?_

_“Fred… George…” Arthur whispered._

Narcissa let her wand hand fall to her side. “The children are most definitely Harry’s, in fact, they are far more Harry’s than they are Ginevra’s.”

“Thank Merlin for that.” Ron sighed.

“How is that possible, Sissy?” Sirius asked.

“She used the _Widow’s Boon_.” Narcissa replied. “It’s an ancient potion, used to continue a bloodline after a lord’s death. It uses blood and hair and is one of the vilest potions to brew. Fast but vile. Less than ten minutes from start to finish, but the intent of the brewer is one of the strongest ingredients. This potion requires someone of mastery levels to brew it. Neither Ginevra nor Molly have the skill needed.”

“We believe that Filberta Weasley may have been the brewer.” Kingsley agreed.

“Yes, I can’t see many others capable, but even then… she’s good but not that good. It’s probably why the children are more Harry’s than Ginevra’s.” Narcissa said.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked, a bundle of blue in his arms.

“Filberta must have been so focused on you as the parent that Ginevra was only an afterthought.” Narcissa replied. “And with the _Widow’s Boon_ , that makes a difference. In times past, if a bearer was injured or had other medical issues, it was possible to _swap_ an unborn child from the body of a bearer, to that of a witch related to either parent, and allow her to carry the child to term. Due to you being a carrier, we may be able to add Charles as the children’s father, this would only be possible because Charles is of the same blood as Ginevra, a requirement of the Boon potion.”

“Narcissa? What would happen if I were to disown Ginny? At this distance?” Arthur asked.

“As far as we can work out… Nothing.” Narcissa answered.

“How do you figure that?” Bill asked.

“Think about it. Sirius went into the veil in June 1996. Lady Magic allowed his Will to become active, with Harry inheriting everything. Yet, Sirius was here, alive. The only way those two statements agree is if Sirius is considered dead by Lady Magic, on Earth, but alive here on Arda.” Narcissa said and paused until Arthur nodded. “That being the case, you cannot disown someone on Earth, as Lady Magic considers you to be death there.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you.” Arthur gave her a smile.

“The only thing it would do, dad, is remove her from your family, here. None of us would consider her our sister anymore.” Bill added.

“But…” Narcissa cut in before Arthur could react. “I wouldn’t do anything until after we have made Charles the children’s father. We would need to alter the parent base from, Ginevra as mother and Harry as father, to… Harry as bearer, Charles as father with Ginevra as proxy-bearer.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Ron sneered. “She doesn’t deserve the mention.”

“Agreed.” Charlie nodded sharply.

“What’s involved in making Charlie their father?” Harry asked.

“Another potion. [_Patris Meus_](My%20Father). Commonly used by adulterous women, to adopt children of dubious parentage, into their husband’s family. It alters the child’s magical heritage to the chosen father’s lineage. In Harry and Charles’ case… Harry is a bearer and recognised as a parent of the children, that means that Charles will be recognised as their father and Harry as their bearer. That will leave Ginevra as only the proxy-bearer, nothing more.”

“That would remove Ginny as their mother?” Arthur asked.

“It would.” Narcissa nodded.

“Alright, set it up.” Charlie ordered.

“While we do that, you might want to think about names for the boys.” Narcissa suggested. “Neither of them are named, as yet.”

“Good.” Harry snorted. “Ginny would likely have called one of them James and the other Sirius.”

“No. Sorry, but no.” Charlie objected. “One Sirius is enough.”

“Agreed.” Severus nodded.

Harry and Charlie looked at each other and when Harry raised a brow, Charlie nodded.

“Ralston and Regulus.” Harry said.

Narcissa thought about that for a moment and nodded. “Yes, they will work well. Middle names?”

The two men huddled together and muttered for a few minutes.

“Ralston Oakley and Regulus Orrin.” Charlie said when they turned back to face Narcissa and the others.

The next morning Bill escorted Ron, Arthur and Kingsley to the newly completed Great Hall and reintroduced them to the Hogwarts contingent. After a simple but filling breakfast, Ron grinned as Harry strapped a baby to each side of his chest and grabbed Ron’s arm.

“Come on, Mione’s going to meet us on what will be the astronomy tower. Once we finish the observation deck’s dome, that is.”

Ron frowned. “Is it safe? If the dome isn’t finished, I mean.”

“Yeah, it’s safe, we haven’t really started yet, so it’s just a platform.” Harry replied.

“Oh, okay.” The two followed a path that was very familiar, even if Ron was surprised that things were a bit closer of lower than he expected. “What’s different? Something’s different here.” Ron frowned when they emerged onto the platform.

“We altered the scale, a bit.” Hermione said, coming over to hug Ron and coo over Harry’s sons.

“The tower itself is shorter, but we kept the width the same.” Harry added. “Eventually, we’ll get around to putting up the arches and the roof, but…? We’re not in that much of a hurry.”

“Oh…” Ron looked around, settling the differences in his mind and accepting them. Hogwarts was Hogwarts, it changed if it wanted to, everyone knew that.

After four hours of listening to Harry and Hermione fill in details that Lee hadn’t told him, Ron tilted his head back in what Harry called his ‘chess-Master’ pose.

“What?” Harry asked.

“What did we miss?” Hermione sighed.

“You never mentioned the necromancer again, or the ring thing.” Ron said.

Hermione and Harry looked at each other and as they thought through the past few years, horror bloomed on their faces.

“Oh, bollocks…” Harry whispered.

“We forgot…” Hermione added.

“We have to…”

“We need to…” they said together.

“We have to deal with it.” Harry finished.

“You talk to Thorin and Bilbo, Harry. Ron, get Bill to round everyone up. I’ll talk to Legolas and Bard. We’ll meet in the Great Hall in an hour.”

Bilbo looked at Harry in horror. “What do you mean… **_we_** forgot about it?!” He screeched. “ ** _I_** never forgot about it, I thought it was part of _**your**_ plan… to wait this long!”

“Ah… no, not really.” Harry grimaced.

“But we’re also in a better position to deal with it now, than we were immediately after the reclamation.” Hermione added.

“So, it’s not really a problem? That we forgot?” Thorin asked.

“No, not really.” Hermione replied.

“So…?” Kingsley asked. “What is this ring?”

Everyone turned to Hermione for that answer.

“Kingsley, you worked with the muggles. Did you ever read books called Fellowship of the ring, the Two Towers or Return of the King?” The self-proclaimed bookworm asked.

“I did. Why?” The former-Minister for Magic asked.

“Well, let’s see…” Hermione huffed. “Bilbo is Frodo Baggins’ cousin-slash-Uncle-slash-mentor. That redhead dwarf you met at lunch, is Gloín, Gimli’s father. That cannonball-looking thing on the table contains the One Ring.”

“The… One… Ring? The one that Frodo carried to Mordor? That Gollum tried to steal? The ring that the Nazgul hunted? That Ring?” Kingsley half whispered, half moaned.

“That Ring.” Hermione confirmed.

“Oh, bollocks.” Kingsley groaned before sitting up and pinning the young woman with a hard stare. “And what do you plan to do with it?”

“Pretty much the same as Frodo.” Hermione said. “We’ve tried everything that would normally kill a horcrux, but so far, we’ve had no success.”

“What have you tried?”

“Fiendfyre, killing curse, basilisk venom, phoenix tears, even an exorcism.” Hermione sighed. “Nothing worked.”

Harry leant forward. “We sent a returnable Patronus to Gandalf, he’s out west at the Grey Havens. There’s a terminal an hour or so north of there, so I sent Oliver to meet with him, taking one of our communication mirrors. I’m hoping the old meddler can provide a bit more information.” He sighed. “We need to know what type of magic this necromancer used when he created it.”

“Why?”

“Our research into Horcruxes during the war, leads us to believe there are three types of horcrux.” Hermione said.

“Three types?” Kingsley muttered. “I wasn’t even aware of **_one_**.”

“No, so far we can identify three types.” Hermione assured him. “One. The type Voldemort predominantly favoured. Can be pretty much anything item, just not a living one. Can only be destroyed by destroying the container. Fiendfyre and basilisk venom work well. In Harry’s case we assume that the killing curse confounded Voldemort's intention and instead of a type one horcrux, he became a type two. However, Nagini is clearly a type two. Mostly used by the ancient Egyptians. Usually a young and attractive person, often unwilling or unknowing. When the originator dies, the two parts of their soul reattach themselves, taking over the body of the horcrux and ejecting the body’s original soul. Kill the body, kill the Horcruxe. Not exactly our preferred choice. The third type are the worst. The being whose horcrux it is, has to physically make the item that is to hold the horcrux, they don’t have to kill to create a horcrux, they only have to have enough conviction to sustain a soul-split long enough to encase one part of their soul in the container. Usually they can only be destroyed in the same place that they were created.”

“Bollocks.” Kingsley muttered again.

“Yes, definitely.” Hermione nodded. “Based on Tolkien’s writings, we believe that,” she nodded at the cannonball, “to be a type three horcrux, but we aren’t certain. Gandalf did send Frodo off to Mordor with ‘toss it in the fires from whence it came’ as a direction. But that could just as easily be a Gandalf thing.”

“Ah…” Kingsley sighed.

“So, what do you plan to do, assuming it is a type three?” Ron asked.

“Assuming it’s a type three, we have to find out where it was made and return it there, before we can destroy it.” Hermione said. “How we destroy it is unknown, Gandalf may know more than us, but it’s entirely possible that just returning it, may be enough to actually destroy it. We just don’t know enough about it.”

“So, assuming that we have to take it… somewhere… Who goes and how?” Kingsley asked and was quite surprised when everyone present, including dwarves and elves, all turned to Harry.

“Until we know, we can’t be certain.” Harry started. “But we can’t let it be known what we are doing, so as far as I am concerned, we need to have a completely obvious reason for going in the basic direction. And cover it by taking a large group.” He held up a hand when people started to object. “We can’t possibly be on some secret mission to some unknown citadel in enemy held territory, if we are a large group of people that include women and children. Now can we?”

“Hide in plain sight?” Kingsley asked.

“Pretty much.” Harry nodded.

A sharp buzzing noise was heard and a handheld mirror that was laying on the table, began to vibrate and shake.

“Harry Potter-Weasley.” Oliver’s voice came from the mirror.

“Oliver Potter-Wood.” Harry responded and quickly an image formed. Oliver stood beside an older man that bore an uncanny resemblance to Albus Dumbledore. “Hey, Ollie. I see you found him.”

“I did, Harry. Thankfully, he didn’t make it hard.”

“Great. Good afternoon, Gandalf.”

“Lord Potter. What can an old man do for you? Hmm?” Gandalf twinkled, much like Dumbledore did.

“Headley and Kíli are almost finished their NEWT studies, and we were discussing the Dark Arts and their defence. One of the subjects under discussion are horcruxes and their destruction.” Harry replied.

“Horcruxes? I’m not familiar with the term, what exactly are horcruxes and how do you believe I can be of assistance?” Gandalf wore a puzzled expression.

“A horcrux is a container that some idiot uses to store a part of their soul, in an attempt to avoid death.” Harry explained. “What we’re interested in are the tales of the One Ring. It sounds suspiciously like a horcrux to us.”

“The One Ring?” Gone was the bumbling old man and in his place a wizened wizard with millennia of knowledge. “What do you know of it?”

Harry smirked and turned the mirror to face the cannonball. “It’s inside that.”

“What did you do to it?!” The old man screeched.

“We locked it up. No-one can touch it, no-one can use it.” Hermione answered.

“I do believe that we need to discuss this face to face. I shall leave here immediately, please do not do anything until I get to Erebor.” Gandalf turned from the mirror and began frantically packing up his campsite.

“Oliver? Can you bring him side-along?” Harry asked.

“Not that far but I do have that portkey to the hospital courtyard. I could use that, if Snape or McGonagall will redo it for me.” Oliver replied.

“Excellent, bring him, someone will replace it.” Harry ordered.

“Got it, see you in a few.” Oliver deactivated the mirror.

“Now, we wait.” Harry sighed.

“Well, while we’re waiting, let’s get some plans in place, so that we can act quickly.” Hermione said.

“Alright, who do we take? And who stays behind?” Sirius asked.

“Hermione and I have to be part of this mission, we’re the ones that enchanted the thing, and we tied the encapsulation of it, to our magical signatures, only if we’re dead can anyone else take our place.” Severus said.

“And Harry has to go, he’s got the most familiarity to horcrux magics, we need him to warn us of imminent attack.” Hermione added.

“And Bilbo, as it’s being stored in his pouch in a pocket that he can’t access, Hermione made it so that only she and I can open the pocket, but only Bilbo can open the pouch.” Harry put in. “After that, those coming are more for emotional support and camouflage than anything else.”

“Alright, so let’s work our way out from there.” Kingsley said.

“Harry, Hermione, Severus and Bilbo.” Arthur said. “Harry means, Charlie and the boys.”

“And me.” Headley said. “I’m young, still a kid to most, Harry bringing me and the twins says that he’s not doing anything underhanded.”

Kingsley nodded. “That’s true.”

“In that case, Remus, me and our Horde had best go, too.” Sirius said.

“And Hermione, means me and ours, too.” Draco said.

“We’re going to need a medi-healer, just in case.” Hermione added.

“We can’t take everyone.” Kingsley objected.

“Why not?” Harry asked. “I could make a case for it.”

“Harry, you have classes starting here, in little more than a month. You need teachers here.” Kingsley argued. “That means that Minerva, Severus, Bill, Remus and Oliver either need to find a replacement or stay here.”

“I shall remain here.” McGonagall said.

“Same here.” Bill said. “Fleur’s pregnant and with her and Narcissa being our only medi-healers, it would be easier and better if Narcissa was to go with you, especially as Severus is already going.”

“Yes, it would.” Severus nodded.

A clatter on the tiles of the hallway alerted the gathered of the impending arrival of Oliver and Gandalf. Sure enough, only a few seconds passed and Oliver lead the old wizard into the Hall.

“Hey, we’re here.” Oliver flopped down beside Colin. “Where are we at?”

“Discussing who’s going and who’s staying here.” The younger wizard told his adopted brother.

“Ooh, that’s not nice.” Oliver mock-glared at Harry.

“Why?” Colin asked.

“It’s my turn to be Hogwarts’ liaison, I can’t go.” Oliver crossed his arms and slumped in his seat.

“Ah, sorry, Ollie.” Harry said. “I didn’t plan for this to happen now… actually, I didn’t plan for this to happen at all, and that’s the issue.”

“In what, Lord Potter?” Gandalf asked.

“Harry, call me Harry. My grandfather was Lord Potter, dad and I preferred our names over our titles.” Harry argued.

“Very well… Harry. What exactly is the issue?” Gandalf repeated.

“Hermione? Would bring Gandalf up to speed on horcruxes, please? Then we can go on from there.”

“Of course, Harry.” Hermione turned to the Istari. “Horcruxes are…”

Six hours later and the Hall was silent, all except for Harry’s quiet voice.

“You mean to tell us, that this Sauron, was once a maia called Mairon, a wizard like yourself, that joined Melkor, also known as Morgoth, who was a demi-god that the other demi-gods were forced to imprison in the Void, due to the destruction he was raining down on this world.” Harry paced back and forth across the Hall. “He used a disguise and was the one to convince the elves to create these Rings of Power, but at the same time he secretly forged a ‘Master’ ring, the One Ring, a type three horcrux, in the belly of Mount Doom.” He paused. “Who names these places? The Lonely Mountain is a solitary volcanic peak, some fifty mile from the nearest range. And Mount Doom? For an evil lord’s lair, it’s kind of cliché, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “Never mind. So after creating the One Ring, he went on to try and subjugate the entire world and got cranky when someone stood up to him? A prince of Gondor got in a lucky strike and sliced of his hand, breaking the physical link between he and his horcrux, causing a magical backlash that destroyed his body, leaving him little more than a wraith. Said prince kept the Ring, calling an heirloom of his people, until it, being like all other horcruxes, was semi-aware and decided that Prince Isildur wasn’t bad enough for its liking and abandoned him. It was lost from history, for centuries, until a hobbit called Déagol found it, his cousin Sméagol, killed him for it and it’s been keeping the poor thing alive for over five hundred years, when hobbits usually only live for a hundred or so. Sméagol lost himself in the mountains and over time he lost his mind to the Ring, reasoning that the voice in his mind was another part of him, not the Ring, and became Gollum.” He turned to face Gandalf. “Am I right, so far?”

“You are.” Gandalf nodded from his window perch, a lit pipe smouldering away between his lips.

“You convince Thorin that now is a good time to recover Erebor and set up poor Bilbo to have his house invaded by a small Horde of unknown dwarves. Bilbo joins them as they tromp halfway across the continent to the afore mentioned solitary volcanic mountain. As they cross the Misty Mountains… and I’m back to stupid names for places… they accidentally enter a goblin enclave inside the stupidly named mountains. Bilbo picks the Ring up off the ground, plays a game with Sméagol and escapes at, coincidentally, pretty much the same time as the dwarves and re-joins the Company. Orcs attack and Bilbo kills his first warg and his first orc to keep Thorin alive. This is where Sirius joins you, fighting alongside Bilbo. You call the Giant Eagle,s who come and rescue the lot of you. They drop you all at the Carrock, Sirius conjures up a cushion and offers everyone tea and healing potions before bringing everyone down off the Carrock by broom. You mention Beorn as someone who might help and that’s where we all meet. Is that about right?” Harry’s voice was calm, quiet and thoughtful, something that was making Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Sirius and Remus a little nervous.

“It is.” Gandalf nodded again.

“Good. I just wanted to be certain.” Harry said before sighing. “I need everyone to decide. Do I step up and do this? This is bad, like Voldemort and Dumbledore working together, bad. I’m going to take a walk. You lot decide who’s in charge of this clusterfuck.” Harry shook his head at Charlie's raised brow and left the Hall.

“Oh, shit.” Draco sighed. “We’re back to horcruxes again.”

“It appears that we are.” Gandalf said. “Bilbo will need to-”

“Stop.” Headley’s voice was hard and strong. “That’s not how this works. We decide as a group. I had no involvement in the Voldemort war. I will abide by the majority decision, will you accept me as Chair?”

“What? Chair? What do you mean?” Gandalf asked at the same time as a round of yeses filled the room.

“Hogwarts has spoken.” McGonagall said. “Headley is Chair.”

“Thank you, Professor McGonagall.” Headley said before turning to Gandalf. “The Chair is the person who mediates or Chairs a meeting. Like everyone else here, you get a vote in what is decided. Once a decision is reached it is final, not appeals, no dissention, no rebellion. Final. Understand?”

“Well, I’m not sure that-”

“Gandalf, you are here as a guest, us giving you a vote is a courtesy.” Headley cut him off. “We are not bound by the maia’s laws, nor are we bound by your White Council. We will take your comments into consideration but we will not blindly follow anyone. Hogwarts did that once and thousands of people died. Every one of us here, lost someone in the Voldemort war because the wizarding world blindly followed a man that didn’t really know what he was doing and was too stubborn to admit it. We will not do that.” Headley pointed to chair at one end of the long table. “I suggest you put your pipe out and sit at the table like a civilized being.”

Gandalf blinked and without saying a word, did as Headley said.

“Thank you.” Headley nodded his acknowledgement. “The subject is the Horcrux of Sauron and its destruction.” Those seated at the table nodded. “Very well. We have determined that the Ring is a type three horcrux and as such can only be destroyed by…”

Little more than an hour later, Harry re-entered the Hall, having returned at the request of Headley’s Patronus.

“Thanks for returning, Harry.” Headley said as Harry stood in the middle of the Hall. “We have reached a consensus.” Harry said nothing, but nodded, waiting. “You will lead a team to Mount Doom, to destroy the One Ring. To camouflage the expedition, you will be accompanied by a large group, whose public reason for going, will be diplomatic relations with Rohan and Minis Tirith.”

“Who’s going?” Harry asked.

“It’s more a case of who’s not.” Headley warned. “Fleur, Bill and their family are staying. Professor McGonagall, Oliver, Kingsley and Ollivander will deal with classes, if we’re not back in time. The rest of Hogwarts is going. Erebor will send Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and their families. Also Balin, Ori, Gimli and Gimli’s sister, Gimris. The [Haerham](distant%20seat%20=%20outpost) are sending Legolas, Kressian and Tauriel. Dean and Lendalen will apparate Tauriel, Luna and Neville to Lothlorien to inquire about envoys from Lothlorien joining us.”

“Oh, great… Hogwarts is on the move… again…” Harry sighed.


	34. Chapter 34

_“Thanks for returning, Harry.” Headley said as Harry stood in the middle of the Hall. “We have reached a consensus.” Harry said nothing, but nodded, waiting. “You will lead a team to Mount Doom, to destroy the One Ring. To camouflage the expedition, you will be accompanied by a large group, whose public reason for going, will be diplomatic relations with Rohan and Minas Tirith.”_

It took less than half an hour for Ron, Charlie, Draco, Fred and George to start a quidditch discussion.

It took five minutes longer for Hermione, Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Harry and Nori to start laying wagers.

Fifty-five minutes after leaving Erebor, Hermione huffed as she handed over an IOU for a pair of blankets for the Potter-Weasley twins, when the friendly discussion became a heated debate.

One hour and five minutes after leaving Erebor, Hermione snarled as she threw a second IOU at Harry and got to her feet. She stalked into the tent at the rear of the carpet, taking care to stay away from the carpet’s fringed edges, they were flitting along at around [30 mile an hour](50km) at roughly one hundred feet above the ground, the last thing they needed was for someone to take a fall. In the tent she lifted her maternity shirt and pulled a shrunken trunk from a tiny pocket behind her belt buckle. Enlarging it, she placed it on its end and enlarged it a second time, she entered it and went to a set of shelves and opened what appeared to be a typical steamer trunk but was in fact a quidditch set from the British National Quidditch Team, that had been custom-made for Harry.

Once the case was open, she lifted out the quaffle and let the trunk close, much to the agitation of the bludgers. As she left the trunk, she absently flicked her wand at a pile of firewood and a small log stretched itself out and formed a large hoop, that she threaded her arm through, before a box of brooms rose into the air and floated along behind her.

Outside, she let the box settle to the carpet’s surface and opened it. She waved her wand and the hoop floated out behind the carpet as though tethered, while the broom headed for the still debating quintet on the neighbouring carpet. Once the brooms were where she felt they should be, her attention went to the quaffle. It wafted over the space between the two carpets and hung in the air above the five wizards.

A huff from Hermione and the quaffle fell, landing precisely in the middle of the group.

“What the…?” Charlie reared away from the ball, while Ron reflexively reached for it.

“Mione?” Draco looked over to his wife.

“For Merlin’s sake, shut up!” She snarled. “We’ve been in the air for less than an hour and a half, shut **_up_**. There’s your bloody quaffle, there’s your bloody hoop.” She pointed to the tethered hoop. “Go play. Just shut up.”

“Yes, dear. Thank you, dear.” Draco beamed at her and her frown faded.

“No keepers, no seekers, no beaters, you’re all chasing. First to get ten goals, gets to choose desert.” Hermione turned to the third carpet. “Fíli, you’re the sixth player. You all have your brooms, get moving.”

There was a flurry of action and the six players took to the air, soaring and swooping as they tried to defend a singular hoop from each other and still be proactive enough to get to the quaffle.

Hermione watched them for a few moments before she went back to her discussion with the other ladies. An hour later, she happened to look up and spy a yearning look on Natalie’s face that was quickly smoothed away, when the younger witch realised that someone was watching. A thoughtful expression settled on Hermione’s face and she hummed to herself. Another five minutes and she sighed and rose to her feet.

“Boys!” She yelled. “New Rules. Six players in the air at any given time. Lose the quaffle three times and you trade out with someone not playing. Fred! Swap out with Headley. George! Swap with Natalie. Charlie, you swap with Harry. Fíli, swap with Kíli. Draco, swap with Kressian. Ron, swap with Ori. Move!”

Seven hours later and the four carpets swooped down into a familiar valley, with a familiar herd of black and white ponies contentedly grazing.

“Time out!” Harry called and the half dozen fliers headed for those gathered on Beorn’s front lawn. “We’ll resume play after departure.” With that, Harry landed and headed for Charlie and their twins. “Hey there, little ones, did you miss me?” He gently scooped Ralston into his arms and tickled under a chubby baby-chin, earning himself a pair of sleepy eyes opening and a thumb being inserted into a tiny mouth.

“Let him go back to sleep, love, they’ve just been fed.” Charlie chided him.

“Got it. Sleepy, cuddly baby with a full belly.” Harry quickly summoned one of the swathes of fabric that they used as a wrap/sling. And weren’t password protected sticking charms marvellous? No knots in the middle of your back and a simple finite wasn’t enough to cancel it and cause the sling to unwrap itself.

Just on dark, Neville apparated in and spent a few minutes causing hilarity when he described Galadriel meeting Luna.

Who knew that nargles were real and that they preferred to live in mallorn trees? How one got to England for Luna to see, was a mystery to everyone. The ones that Luna had seen, had apparently been living in a mistletoe infection in an English, or field, maple tree in the woods between the Rookery and the Diggory home. They had been the start of her father’s hunt for unknown or seemingly mythical creatures.

When Harry emerged from Beorn’s bathing shed, after having taken the most luxurious soak in the shapeshifter’s hot spring, he blinked at the sight he was presented with. Bilbo sitting on a tree stump with both Beorn and Buckbeak looking over his shoulders at the gurgling baby in his arms.

“Well, now… what do we have here?” He wandered over.

“I borrowed Regulus from Ron.” Bilbo said, unrepentantly. “Charlie has Ralston and Ron was wanting to get in and sort out his workshop. Apparently, he hadn’t had the chance before he left.”

“Yeah, he left in a bit of a hurry.” Harry shook his head. “Hermione had forty-six days to see that everyone had everything they would need but poor Ron had less than thirty hours.”

“And what about Arthur and… what was the other man’s name?” Bilbo asked.

“Kingsley. Kingsley Shacklebolt. And I don’t know.”

“Well, we’re fine, right here.” Bilbo ran a finger down the infant’s chubby cheek, causing the baby to shift its head a little. “Why don’t you go and find out?”

Harry saw the barely concealed yearning on the hobbit’s face. “Thank, Bilbo. If he starts to get restless, come find either me or Charlie. He’ll probably want a feed and a clean nappy.” He knew that neither Bilbo nor Beorn would let anything happen to his son, and that didn’t take into account how interested and protective Buckbeak was being.

He found Arthur down near the stream, sitting on a small boulder, just looking out over the water and the pasture on the other side.

“Hey, Mr Weasley.” He sat down close but not right beside him.

“Harry…” Mr Weasley started but trailed off, only to start again. “Harry, I’m sorry, I don’t know-”

“Stop.” Harry held up a hand and waited until Arthur was silent. “Thank you. Did you give them the recipe for the potion?”

“What?” Arthur reared back in surprise. “No!”

“Did you tell them where to find it?”

“No.”

“Did you tell them which potion to use?”

“No.”

“Did you give them any ingredients?”

“No… not that I’m aware of.” Arthur added to the denial.

“Did you stand over them, demanding they brew the potion?”

“No.”

“Did you force Ginny to drink the potion?”

“No, and it’s not drunk, it’s spelled directly into a witch’s uterus.”

“Irrelevant.” Harry waved it off. “Did you encourage them?”

“No.” Arthur was beginning to see where Harry was going with his set of questions.

“Did you condone what they did?”

“No.” A tear ran down Arthur's cheek.

“When you were told, did you take action?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see to it that they couldn’t do it again?”

“As best we could, yes.”

“And **_that’s_** why there is nothing for you to apologise for, Mr Weasley.” Harry nodded sharply.

“Arthur, Harry, call me Arthur. You’re not a child anymore and you’re married to my son.” Arthur shook his head. “Why we never saw that coming, I don’t know. You were fascinated with Charlie and his dragons, right from the moment you met him.”

“Yea, he was kinda… distinctive, wasn’t he?” Harry grinned. “Although, it wasn’t until Ginny kissed me during the lull in fighting, at Hogwarts, that I finally realised, she was the wrong redhead.”

“And now you have two children. How many more will there be?” Arthur waggled his brows at the younger wizard. “You do know that Weasleys tend to have large families, don’t you?”

“We’ve been trying.” Harry blushed bright red, but still said it. “Severus and Narcissa think that us not having kids is something to do with Voldemort. They had to do a de-aging and re-age before they got pregnant, so did Draco and Mione. They want to do the same for Charlie and I, but we were kinda hoping that Weasley fertility would override whatever it was that Voldy did.”

“But it obviously hasn’t…” Arthur sighed.

“No, it hasn’t.” Harry sighed with him.

“So are you going to do the de-aging?”

“Yeah, we planned it, then this all fronted up.” Harry waved his hand in a circular motion.

“How long does it take? For both aging and de-aging?”

“About twenty-four hours.” Harry answered. “Six for the de-aging, another six for the setting agent, another six to purge all potions from my system, and a last six hours for the aging part. At least that’s how long it took for Remus, we de-aged him back to four years old and re-aged him to mid-twenties. Snape and Narcissa were a half day, but they only went back to their teens and aged forward to mid-twenties. Draco was only a few hours, all up, he de-aged to fifteen, that was when Voldy busted Bellatrix out and Lucius took her and the other Death-eaters in, she was a bit too free with the cruciatus, then he re-aged to be the same age as Mione. But Fred, George, Padma, Parvati, Colin, Natalie and Katie were only a de-aged a few weeks, just enough to take them back prior to the battle.”

“And Sirius? And Bill?”

“Ah.” Harry grimaced. “Bill decided to de-age and remove Greyback’s marks, it was only a year or two, it did make him a little closer in age to Fleur, too, which they both liked. Sirius was a little more… involved. He was never treated well by this family, not once they found out that he was a bearer.” Arthur winced and nodded. “Yeah, not good that. He had to go back to… I think he said the first time they used the cruciatus on him, he was seven. Just to be absolutely certain there were no issues, Severus insisted that he be de-aged back to an infant. The problem was that, Siri wasn’t sure how old he was when his parents found out he was a bearer.”

“Oh, dear.” Arthur sighed.

“Yeah. As a result, he was de-aged to a month old.” Harry nodded.

“My word…”

“Severus wanted to take me back to much the same, but Remus was able to tell us the date that Siri blood-adopted me. Neither of them want that to be reversed, in fact… Remus, now that he’s not a werewolf anymore, wants to do the same… blood-adopt me, that is.” Harry hurriedly corrected himself.

“Yes, I can imagine he would.” Arthur nodded.

“Anyway… the final decision is, I will be de-aged to thirteen months. But I’m hesitant to do it right now… before we deal with this stupid Ring, I mean.” Harry added.

“Yes… It could change you physically, that could have a detrimental effect on what we’re going to do.” Arthur nodded again.

“Exactly.” Harry grinned. “But that wasn’t why I came looking for you.”

“Oh…?”

“Yeah. Hermione had forty-six days to prepare for my departure through the veil, Ron had less than thirty hours. He made it, though. Got all of his stuff into the trunk Croaker gave him. But… What about you? And Kingsley? Did you get to bring anything with you?”

“Yes and no.” Arthur sighed. “I have my Order trunk, but nothing else.”

“Order trunk?” Harry asked.

“Fabian and Gideon made trunks for those of us that were hidden members of the Order. Molly never approved of her brothers fighting, so the three of us hid the fact that I usually fought alongside them. The trunk was my supply kit. It held a tent, some clothes, some money, spare wands, potions, that sort of thing. I haven’t had a good look at it.” Arthur answered.

“And Kingsley?”

“I have no idea, but I would assume that he would have a similar trunk, he was another of the twins’ hidden members.”

“Hidden members? Do you remember who they were?” Harry asked, curiously.

“The only one still alive was Rosmerta, at the Three Broomsticks.” Arthur said after thinking about it. “Oh, and you already have Minerva, Severus, Ollivander, Sirius and Remus. They were regular Order members.”

“We do.” Harry grinned. “Anyway… you need to check out your trunk and let us know what you need. One of the boxes that Rocksplitter sent with Ron was a goblin storage box, it held the last of the gold from the vault that I gave Hermione to use to help those hurt at Hogwarts. So, there’s plenty of money. And Hermione was in charge of supplying the Nest, so there’s plenty of stuff there, too. We want you happy, Arthur, and you can’t be happy without the essentials.”

“Alright.” Arthur nodded. “I’ll look at my trunk this evening and I’ll talk to Kingsley, too. Colin gave us one of those Ready-Built cottages, just a small one, but plenty big enough for Kingsley, Ron and I. We’re over there.” He pointed to a simple white-washed and thatched cottage on the other side of the creek.

“Nice.” Harry nodded. “Let Hermione or Colin know what you need and someone will see to it that you’re supplied. But for now, let’s go get some supper, yeah?”

Harry looked across the elven platform and sighed. Saruman sat with an ‘I’m better than all of you’ look plastered on his face. Gandalf looked at the other old wizard as though he could do no wrong. Galadriel was being politically correct and not using her ‘gift’ to look into anyone’s mind. Remus and Severus were sitting as though Harry’s gaze was the only thing keeping them in their seats.

And Hermione…?

Harry had seen Hermione angry before… or… he thought he had…

But nothing like this.

Dammit. Time to step up and take over. Again.

He shut his eyes for a second and focused his mind. Opening his eyes, he looked at the blonde she-elf.

 _‘Galadriel!’_ He yelled in his mind, hoping that it would catch her attention.

Galadriel twitched and her eyes widened, fractionally.

 _‘Galadriel, hear me. Hear me now.’_ His mental voice was hard and cold. _‘You have gifts. Use them, now. Look into my mind and see why my people shake with anger. Look.’_ He lowered his occlumency shields and let the blonde elf have free access to his mind.

He felt her hesitant mental touch and guided her to the history of his life before directing her towards Hermione’s briefing of Tolkien’s stories and what they had done to ensure the survival of certain people and the destruction of the One Ring. And what they knew was still to come. She wafted through his mind, her touch gentle.

 _‘What would you have me do, now, young wizard?’_ Her voice asked, fully of sadness.

 _‘Saruman must be stopped.’_ Harry thought to her. _‘Use you gift. Look into his mind. See for yourself, how far he’s fallen.’_

_‘And if I find what you say I will find?’_

_‘I will act. I will stun him. I would ask that you not let your elves attack me or mine.’_

_‘And then?’_ The blonde elf tilted her head.

‘ _That is for the members of the White Council to decide, not me. And before you ask… No. No-one from Hogwarts will join your council. It holds too many restriction, for our liking. And Hogwarts will never blindly follow anyone ever again. It cost us too much, too many lives.’_ Harry sighed.

 _‘But Hogwarts follows you.’_ She arched a brow in challenge. _‘Do they not follow blindly?’_

_‘Ha. If you think that, you really need to learn how to read people. They follow me, because as a whole, they unanimously decided that I would lead in this particular venture. But even then, they don’t follow blindly. They ask, they question, they argue. They may follow me, but the thing that you have failed to realise, is that while I lead them… I am also **answerable** to them. As long as my actions are to the benefit of Hogwarts and mean no harm to innocent lives, they’ll follow me. The moment that changes…? Hermione, Ron and Charlie would be down on me like a ton of bricks. Not to mention, Remus, McGonagall and Snape… or Luna…’_

_‘Ah…’_

_‘Yeah…’_ Harry gave her a quick grin. _‘Do your thing. If I’m wrong, you’ve lost nothing. If I’m right? Can you afford to let that possibility slip through your fingers?’_

 _‘No, I cannot.’_ Galadriel looked away from Harry and her mental touch left his mind.

The seconds passed and Harry began to tense. Eventually, her touch returned.

 _‘It is as you said, he has fallen.’_ Harry saw Galadriel’s eyes glisten with unshed tears. _‘I have told my elves that they must not interfere. But… Mithrandir… I cannot stop him.’_

 _‘Can you warn Severus?’_ Harry asked and watched as her head dipped in a miniscule nod. _‘Then tell him to freeze Gandalf the second that Saruman is stunned.’_

 _‘I will.’_ She paused. _‘I have. He says to use parcel-tongue as Saruman is strong and Latin may not be enough. I hope, young wizard, that this means something to you?’_ Harry ignored Galadriel’s mispronunciation of parseltongue.

 _‘It does.’_ Harry let his mind laugh but didn’t explain further.

_‘Very well. My elves are ready, I am ready, Severus is ready. Are you ready?’_

Harry closed his eyes and focused on the memory of the basilisk. When he opened his eyes, he said nothing but he looked from her to Severus, knowing the former spy was watching and waiting for his direction, and tapped his fingers against his arm.

Three.

Two.

One.

 ** _§ STUPIFY! §_** Harry spat in parseltongue, his wand pointing directly at Saruman's heart.

 ** _“Immobulus!”_** Severus snapped before Harry had completed the charm, his wand pointing at Gandalf.

“What are you _doing?!”_ Celeborn lost his calm appearance and began to rise.

“They do what they must, husband.” Galadriel laid a hand on his arm. “Curunir has fallen to Mordor. I have seen his mind and it is Dark. His is little but Morgoth’s puppet, now.”

Celeborn slumped backwards onto his throne-like chair.

Gandalf went slack within Severus’ charm, shock and horror on his face.

Elrond looked at Galadriel, stunned. “What do we do, now? Curunir has always guided us. Without his judgement, how do we act?”

“As Mithrandir was so eloquently informed, just recently. We are only being informed as a courtesy. The Ring was found by Master Baggins and it is he that will decide what will happen to it. He, along with the entirety of Hogwarts and the Company of Thorin Oakenshield, have placed Lord Potter as leader of this expedition. Our involvement is naught but a courtesy, from one Lord to another.” Galadriel. “And bluntly, husband? The Ring is beyond our grasp, even were you to hold it in your hand, you could not wield it. For which, I am extremely grateful.”

Celeborn let his head fall into his hands. “This is payback for marrying Finarfin’s daughter, isn’t it?” He asked Elrond.

“I’d be more inclined to say Finrod or Aegnor. It’s more their style.” Elrond corrected. “The Twins take after them. Use their journals as… inspiration…” He ignored the disgruntled noises coming from a pair of identical elves that stood behind him.

“Alight. Master Baggins, Lord Potter? What do you plan to do with… **_it?”_** Celeborn asked.

“You want to put a what? Where?” Thengel, son of the king of Rohan, asked a _**very**_ pregnant Sirius Black.

“We want to put a carpet terminal at Edoras.” Sirius replied. “Over there.” He gestured off behind himself, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “There’s a rocky outcropping, above the walls. It’s not being used for anything. It’d be ideal for a terminal. A small flat-is area, that we can put a platform on as a waiting area, right beside a drop-off, perfect for a carpet to butt up against.”

“But why carpets?” Thengel asked.

“Why not?” Sirius answered. “With our carpet service, you can get to Minas Tirith in a single day and back in a second day. Aren’t your sisters fostered in Dol Amroth? A carpet could have you there inside two days.”

Thengel tilted his head in consideration. Dol Amroth in two days… His mind instantly went to the raven-haired beauty that was his sisters’ foster sister. Morwen Steelsheen had caught his heart as a young maiden and now that she was of marrying age, he desired to court her. A two-day journey as opposed to a two week trip? That would certainly allow him more time with her.

“I will talk with my father, we would need to see your construction plans and have a more detailed understanding of your plans.” Thengel kept his face calm.

“Ah… You’ll need to speak with the Ladies Lavender and Padma and Princess Parvati. They’re the ones running this show.” Sirius rubbed his hand across his swollen stomach and sighed as the baby inside moved to a, thankfully, more comfortable position. “They’ve a business plan ready. Each step laid out with what they need and how they plan to achieve each step. They’re _**scarily**_ well organised.”

“Then perhaps you might introduce them?” Thengel sighed. Protective uncles were worse than fathers.

Padma sat between her sister and Lavender, with Fíli, Justin and Snape sitting behind them, Fíli and Justin as their husbands and Snape as Lavender’s adopted father. Opposite them sat Ecthelion, the current Steward of Gondor, Prince Adrahil of Dol Amroth and a bevy of advisors.

Two hours into negotiations and so far, the three ladies were so far in front, that not even a trio of snitches could win the game for the six men facing them.

“So, you wish to lease or purchase a small plot of land behind the city library to use as a… staging post… for your… carpet service. Am I correct?” Ecthelion summarised.

“Pretty much.” Lavender smiled prettily.

“And the same in Dol Amroth?” Adrahil added.

“Yes.” Parvati nodded.

Adrahil and Ecthelion exchanged a long speaking look, before Ecthelion sighed.

“Show us your plans. We’ll not make uninformed decisions. But if you can cut down travel time between Minas Tirith, Dol Amroth and Edoras? It’s not really something we can afford to pass up.” The Steward said.

At the same time as Lavender, Padma and Parvati were meeting with the Steward of Gondor and the Prince of Dol Amroth, Harry was leading a small group of three teams to Mt Doom.

Natalie, as chaser with Fred and George as her beaters. Euan with Bill and Remus. And Ori with Kíli and Gimli. The idea being that the three chasers would pass the cannonball-contained-Ring between them, while the beater pairs would ensure that each chaser was kept safe from enemy attacks.

In addition to these, Bilbo was going with them. He had insisted that he needed to go, as he was the one to pick it up, he would be the one to see it destroyed. He’d worked hard with the Quidditch Queens to master the skills of a chaser, he was going to need them, if they were to pull this off.

While Mt Doom was over a hundred miles from Minas Tirith, they weren’t using modified brooms. Instead they had heavily charmed quidditch brooms, with extra cushioning charms and a whole slew of additional protection charms. Hermione, Remus, Alice and Snape had spent an entire day layering the charms on each broom.

Then they had waited patiently as Hermione and Snape had removed their magical signatures from the cannonball, meaning that it would melt naturally when exposed to the extreme temperatures of Mt Doom. Snape had suggested putting a stasis back on it, just to ensure that it could not affect them. After that, Alice cast overpowered notice-me-not charms on them, before each of them were hugged and sent on their way with teary farewells.

With Harry leading, they silently swooped away from the white city and headed east. They swung south of the river-split city of Osgiliath and rose high to sweep over the broken crags of Minas Morgol and out over the barren plains of Mordor. Frequently they were forced to swerve to avoid a jet of steam or gas that spewed from the glowing cracks in the ground. But at the speed they were moving, sometimes it was easier to just hold your breath until you were passed.

As they neared the solitary peak, they saw movement on the ground, orcs and goblins, and some type of lizard like creature that raised its head and screeched as they flew overhead. Swooping down into the remnants of an extinct volcano, that butted up against the smoking mountain, Harry gave the signal and Bilbo opened his pouch, letting Harry summon the cannonball from its depths.

A flick and the cannonball flew beside Bilbo. Natalie darted passed and snatched it from the air, banking hard to her left she passed the ball to Ori. He pulled up to the right and passed the ball to Euan, who surged back the way they’d came, passing the ball to Bilbo. This series of ‘twist, turn and pass’ went on for minutes as they drew ever nearer to the volcano’s rim, circling the upper edges until Harry spotted the entrance.

A series of sharp crags and spires protected the entrance, its size deceptive due to the enormity of the mountain. He alerted the fliers and, in a move that would have made the RAF Red Arrows’ acrobatics choreographer either weep or swoon with envy, the twelve fliers converged on the entrance and plunged into its shadows. Inside, they slowed and came to a halt clustered around the bridge and its platform.

Natalie passed the cannonball to Harry, who drew his wand and proceeded to cast a pair of timed charms, a cushioning charm and a bubble-head charm. Between them, these should hold for half an hour, then they would dissipate and allow the cannonball to melt in the volcano’s molten centre. Lava is hotter than lead or glass and they were two of the cannonball’s layers. After casting his charms, Harry held the ball out to Bilbo.

“You picked it up. You get rid of it.” He told the hobbit.

“I don’t want to touch it.” Bilbo screwed his face up in disgust but he reached out took it in his hand before leaning back and heaving the ball into the air.

It rose, then fell.

Plop.

Lava splattered and bubbled, and the ball sank beneath the surface, leaving nary a ripple to mark its path.

“Right. We’ve got, at most twenty minutes. Let’s go.” Harry called and as one, the teams pivoted in mid-air and the twelve got the hell out of there.

Back in clear air, Harry nodded to each person and one by one, they rose to flank him. As his speed increased, so did theirs. It took time, far more than Harry wanted to spare, but soon they were flying at the maximum speed that a Firebolt could produce. The ground rose and fell under them, ignored as they pushed as hard as they could, to reach the safety of Gondor. Rising from the Plains of Pelennor, they began to slow, in preparation to land on the balcony of the suites assigned to them.

Touching down, each was hugged by a waiting Alice, who also lifted the notice-me-nots and sent each of them off towards their own rooms.

Harry and Bilbo exchanged a long speaking glance.

“Well done, my Lord.” Bilbo nodded regally.

“And to you, as well, Your Highness.” Harry did the same.

“Bloody dwarves.” Bilbo muttered. “I’m not bloody royalty.”

Harry snorted. “You will be, seeing as you finally accepted Thorin’s courtship.”

Bilbo glared at him. “Get lost, Lord Potter, and keep your mouth shut.” The hobbit snarled and stalked away, muttering under his breath.

“Payback’s a bitch.” Harry called after him, before heading to find his own husband and their sons.


	35. Chapter 35

_Touching down, each was hugged by a waiting Alice, who also lifted the notice-me-nots and sent each of them off towards their own rooms._

_Harry and Bilbo exchanged a long speaking glance._

_“Well done, my Lord.” Bilbo nodded regally._

_“And to you, Your Highness.” Harry did the same._

_“Bloody dwarves.” Bilbo muttered. “I’m not bloody royalty.”_

_Harry snorted. “You will be, seeing as you finally accepted Thorin’s courtship.”_

_Bilbo glared at him. “Get lost, Lord Potter, and keep your mouth shut.” The hobbit snarled and stalked away, muttering under his breath._

_“Payback’s a bitch.” Harry called after him, before heading to find his own husband and their sons._

Harry had taken less than three steps before he felt the ground rumble.

“Guess that was it, then?” Alice asked as she and Harry grasped at the balcony’s railing.

“I would say…” Harry trailed off as colour to the east caught his eye. "Oh..."

A tall slender beam of fire pierced the horizon, clouds of dirty orange smoke billowing from it. as Harry watched, he saw a front of air, much like that of a _protego’s_ shield advancing on the white city.

“Duck!” He warned and dropped below the level of the heavy stone railing.

The blast of hot air hit the walls of the city and went in the only direction available to it. Up. As the wind went up passed their balcony, Harry and Alice saw dust, leaves, feathers, scraps of fabric and a single basket being tossed about. Within seconds the wind fell and silence settled in behind it.

“Now what?” Alice asked, raising her head from behind a heavy stone bench.

Harry slowly stood, staying ready to move at the slightest need. “Not sure…” He answered.

“Were you expecting that?” Alice pointed to the east.

The mountain range of Ered Litui, including Minas Morgol was… gone. In its place was a low depression that was slowly filling with smoke and water.

“Uh… no…” Harry replied. “I kinda expected a big bang. Most of Voldy’s horcruxes went out violently. That’s a bit…”

“… a bit of a let-down…?” Alice finished for him.

“Eh, no complaint here. I’d much rather the ground sink than explode.”

Alice tilted her and shrugged. “Yes, I suppose so. As long as it doesn’t reach all the way here.”

“Well, Osgiliath is still standing, so I think we’re good.” Harry stood up properly. “I need a shower. Ow.” He added as he stretched and a twinge in his left shoulder reminded him that he’d just pushed a broom to its limits.

“Oh, go on, then. Charlie stayed in your rooms, waiting for you.” Alice smirked at him, wagging her eyebrows up and down.

Harry snorted and shook his head, his godmother had no shame. Hussy.

After a long hot bath and a change of clothes, Harry felt better. He settled on the large bed beside Charlie and eased one of their sons into his arms.

“Here, let me take him.” Harry whispered and stroked a finger down Regulus’ face. “They’re so sweet when they’re asleep.”

“And everyone else seems to want them when they’re awake.” Charlie laughed silently. “If they’re anything like me and Bill as kids, we should be very glad.”

“Hellions, were you?” Harry wriggled his way over until he was pressed against Charlie's side and lean forward as Charlie lifted and arm to curl it around Harry’s shoulders.

“Dad always said it was us that taught the twins to be pranksters.” Charlie leant his head against Harry’s.

“Sweet. We’ve got hell to look forward to, then.” Harry sighed before looking at Charlie. “Yeah, right who are we kidding? They’ll probably learn more from us than anyone else.” Charlie snickered in reply.

A few minutes passed before they next spoke.

“Where do we go from here, love?” Charlie asked.

“As in... from Minas Tirith or the future?” Harry asked in response.

“The future.”

“Well… having the Prince of Dol Amroth here, means that we don’t need to go there. Lavender, Padma and Parvati might need to, but you and I don’t. We can head home with whoever’s interested. Once we get home, I’m going to do the de-aging/re-aging thing. These two make me want more, Charlie, lots more.” Harry bumped his head against Charlie's.

“Yeah, I can get behind that, they’re kinda cute, aren’t they? You make pretty Weasley babies.”

Harry huffed. “Just… for the next ones, let’s leave your sister out of it.”

“Definitely.”

“Classes start in a couple of weeks and we should be there for that.” Harry reminded them both.

“CoMC and Domestic Magics.” Charlie nodded.

“Yeah.” Harry nodded back.

“Quidditch on the weekends?”

“At least until we decide to have more of these, then I’ll be watching from the grandstands.” Harry replied.

“Do you think Ron will ask Lavender out?” Charlie mused.

“Nope, he’s gone the formal route, instead.” Harry snorted.

“Formal?” Charlie raised his head to look Harry in the eye. “What did he do?”

“Asked Severus and his dad to negotiate a betrothal contract, with no penalties if Lavender changed her mind.” Harry answered.

“He left it to Lavender?”

“Yep.”

“What did she say?” Charlie grimaced.

“I have no idea, but he was exceptionally pale once she’d said whatever it was.” Harry winced at the memory.

“Ugh, better Ron than us.”

“Isn’t that the truth? Lavender’s just **_mean…”_** Harry whined the last word.

“How’s our tower going? Is it going to take much longer, do you think?” Charlie asked.

“Bofur and Headley are almost finished the first level, the stairs held them back, but they’ve figured out how to carve in bracing on each step to stop it letting the step below it collapse. It’s beyond me, I just put stones where they tell me to.” Harry shrugged. “Since the twins arrival, we’ve designed a wing from the tower that leads back towards Ravenhill. It’ll be part of the access along the out wall, but the only internal access will be from our tower. It will meet up with the mountain arm at that little plateau. Bofur suggested walling it in as a private garden, seeing as no-one else wants it.”

“That’d be a garden and yard for the horrors to run wild in.” Charlie nodded.

“Yeah. Oh and remind me to speak to Severus later.” Harry said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I want to see if he can come up with a potion that will make hobbits and dwarves into carriers. Even if they have to take a potion every day during a pregnancy. The look on Bilbo’s face when he held Regulus… He probably won’t say it, but he wants kids of his own.”

“And marrying Thorin, the only way he’s going to get them, is if one of them is a carrier.” Charlie finished for him.

“Exactly.” Harry nodded.

A sharp buzzing noise sounded, not quite loud enough to wake the twins but loud enough to be heard by the adults. Harry flicked his wand and a small mirror compact flew into his hands. “Harry Potter-Weasley.” Oliver’s voice came from the mirror.

“Oliver Potter-Wood.” Harry responded and the mirror’s surface swirled and his image became that of his brother, Oliver. “Hey, Ollie. What’s up?”

“You’re uncles, again. Sigrid and I have another son.” Oliver beamed at them.

“Two of each, now. Well done. Give Sig a hug for us.” Harry grinned.

“Will do.”

“What have you named him?” Charlie demanded.

“We decided that we’d still with the plant names that the Evans family liked. You know that. So, we’ve Azalea, Cedar and Heather. And now this little fellow, his name is Sage.” Oliver answered nodding to the swaddled baby in his arms

“Oh, nice.” Harry nodded.

“Thought you might like it.” Oliver laughed and gently rocked his arms, settling the baby back to sleep.

“You want us to pass it on? Or do you want us to call a meeting?” Charlie asked.

“Nah, just pass it along. I’ll catch everyone sooner or later. When will you be home?” Oliver asked and Harry was hit with the realisation that Erebor **_was_** home.

“We’re probably looking at another one or two days here, then we can head back.” Charlie answered. “A day to and another in Rohan, same to Lothlorien, Beorn’s and back to Erebor. Ten days?”

“Just in time for Sirius to go into labour, I’ll bet.” Harry snickered, the thought of his godfather running around after toddlers never failed to amuse Harry.

“How much bigger is he?” Oliver bit his lip.

“Huge. Narcissa thinks it might be twins but can’t get a good read on it.” Harry huffed. “Something to do with carriers and the charms not registering as well as on females. I wasn’t really listening.”

“You never do.” Oliver shook his head.

“What can I say? I’ve spend enough time in hospitals, tuning healers out is automatic.” Harry grinned.

“You’d better not let Narcissa hear you say that.” Oliver warned.

“I’m not that stupid, Ollie, I know better than that.” Harry argued.

“If you knew better, you’d actually listen to her.” Charlie snorted.

“Nooo….” Harry whined.

“Yes.” Both Oliver and Charlie said together. A heartbeat later and all three men laughed.

“Alright, alright. I’m going to take this little fellow back to his mama for a feed, then I have to go to Erebor and let the rest of the Company know. I’ll catch up with you lot a bit later. Say ‘hi’ for us and hugs to all the horrors.” Oliver shook his head. “See you soon, little brother.” And the mirror swirled again before showing Harry and Charlie's reflections.

“Sage, huh?” Charlie twitched his lips as he repeated the name a few times. “Yeah, that works.”

“It does.” Harry agreed.

“I wonder how many more they’re going to have?”

“Well… given that Sigrid seems to like be pregnant and Severus’ potions make getting her figure back so much easier, I’d say… quite a few.”

“Hmm… Are we going be like that?” Charlie asked.

“Possibly… Probably… Depends on how the first pregnancy goes. Even if we don’t go back for a second go, we’ll have at least three. These two and… however many I carry.” Harry assured him.

“That’s true. We can deal with three if it’s not something you like doing. Three’s fine.” Charlie agreed. “Making them is the fun bit, anyway.”

Harry smirked. “These two are asleep. Wanna get in some practise?”

Charlie's eyes lit up and he quickly began to shuffle off the bed. “Let me put these two in their cots and I’ll be right back.”

Dinner that even was a relaxed affair. The news of Mordor’s collapse had spread and while some people were worried about what that meant, the Hogwarts/Erebor contingent weren’t among them. They knew what had happened.

All they were interested in, was the future.

“Dean and Seamus are going to stay in Minas Tirith during construction of the terminal, then they’ll head down to Dol Amroth.” Lavender told them. “Prince Adrahil has offered accommodation for myself and whoever’s going with me. Up to six people. At this point, Gimris and I seem to be it. The offer’s open if anyone else is interested.”

“There’s also portkeys back to Hogwarts, so don’t think that you have to fly all the way if you want to pop back for the weekend.” Padma added.

“I wouldn’t mind staying.” Ron said. “I can help with construction.”

Harry ducked his head to avoid laughing, he knew exactly why Ron wanted to stay and it wasn’t to help in building.

“Sure, why not?” Lavender tried to answer casually, but everyone knew how much it meant to her.

“The rest of us are getting antsy and want to go home.” Parvati said.

“We want to meet Ollie’s newest horror.” Fred corrected.

“That too.” Bilbo said.

“Thorin’s getting nervous. Leaving Amad in charge of Erebor is-” Fíli began.

“A bad idea.” Thorin cut him off.

“Leaving Dís, Dwalin and Gloín alone, in charge of an army? No, it’s definitely _**not**_ a good idea.” Balin agreed.

“Then…” Harry looked around the table. “Let’s go home. Tomorrow, we go to Rohan, had a day to rest and finalise any issues that might have popped up. Do the same to Lothlorien and to Beorn’s, then home.”

“Who’s going to man the Rohan terminal?” Remus asked.

“Me and Colin.” Euan said.

“And me and Natalie will be staying in Lothlorien.” Dennis added.

“As will Luna and I.” Neville said. “Not permanently, just for a year or so. They have some plants that Severus and Elrond believe may be beneficial to some of Severus’ potions.”

“We’ll be setting up a greenhouse trunk to bring back to Erebor, but we want to make sure that we can care for each plant properly.” Luna added.

“And Luna wants to see it she can get a couple of mallorn tree seedlings, she wants some nargles in the garden.” Neville smiled down at his petite wife.

Harry shook his head in amusement. “Fair enough. You convince Galadriel and no-one will argue the point. I’ll build you a walled garden if you need it.”

“Thank you, Harry, I was thinking of that little dell to the west of Ravenhill, it would only need a wall along the sou-western face.” Luna smiled at him.

“The one where we found the injured eagle?” Harry asked.

“Yes, that one.”

“Sure. I’ll get a start on it, sometime in the next few months.”

“Thank you, Harry.” Luna patted his hand. “No hurry, I can help when we get back.”

Harry squinted at her. “What do you See?”

“The de-aging/re-aging is going to be rough, not the actual process, but the after-affects, magically, I mean. Your levels are going be all over the place, it’s going to take a few weeks to settle down.” She replied.

“Oh, great. Just what I need…” Harry moaned.

“But you won’t have any trouble with pregnancies, either getting pregnant, carrying to term or giving birth. That’s the trade-off.” Luna added.

“A few weeks?” Harry asked.

“Three and a bit.” Luna frowned as she narrowed it down. “Three weeks and… four days.” She shrugged. “Then you’ll have to put in a lot of work to refine your precision control. Brute strength will not be an issue, but precision? You’re going to have to be careful. No-one will get hurt but without work, you’re going mess a few things up. That’s a little vague, it depends on how much work you put in.”

“Got it.” Harry nodded. “I’ll put it in.”

“Also…?”

“Yes…?”

“You might want to suggest to Ron that he do the same. The de-aging/re-aging, I mean. The damage from your escapades… if it’s not properly corrected, he’ll have problems when he get’s older. Not aggression, more mental, like fragmentation of his personality.” Luna hurried to explain.

“Ah. Alright. I’ll speak to him. He can always portkey back to Hogwarts for the treatment.” Harry grimaced.

“The two of you should do it at the same time, it would make it much easier for the rest of us.” Charlie leant in and whispered into Harry’s ear.

“Why? Won’t Ron only be going back to eleven?” Harry asked.

“Probably better if he goes back the same as you. The twins dropped him on his head a few times when he was a baby. Mum used to get so angry, but Ron never seemed to care. Maybe that’s what set things up for your ‘escapades’?” Charlie suggested.

“Luna?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know if it did or not, but the idea of the two of you together is good.” The blonde witch answered in her typically dreamy manner.

“Okay, I’ll talk to Ron and Severus, later.”

“Thanks, love.” Charlie pressed a gentle kiss onto Harry cheek and turned his attention to his dessert.

Severus and Ron looked at Harry, both clearly thinking about what he’d said.

“And Luna thinks this is the best option?” Severus asked.

“Yes.” Harry answered.

“Very well, I shall plan for the treatment. Mr Weasley?”

Ron was still thinking. It took a few more moments before he looked up. “Yeah. That’s probably about right. I remember mum giving the twins a walloping because I fell down the stairs. Huh… From their room. Two flights of stairs. I was… two...? three…? Definitely no older, because Ginny wasn’t walking, yet.”

“In that case, I agreed with Luna. It would be far easier to de-age and re-age the pair of you the same length of time.” Severus made a few notes in his ever-present notebook.

“Yeah. I can do that. Let me know when and I’ll portkey back.” Ron nodded.

“Very well.” Severus nodded to the two men, stood and left the room.

“So… you’re going to de-age, re-age and get knocked up?” Ron asked Harry. “Is that the plan?”

Harry laughed. “Pretty much.”

“Only you, Harry, only you.” Hermione huffed as she walked in the door, causing Ron and Harry to laugh.

For a few minutes the trio sat quietly, before the silence got too much for Hermione.

“So, was the Black library right, Harry? Is this your ‘reward’?”

“I think it just might be, Mione. It sure feels like it.” Harry answered quietly. “I like it, I feel more at home here than I have anywhere else, even the Burrow or Grimmauld Place.”

“Erebor is home.” Hermione agreed. “In a way that England and Scotland never were.”

“Yeah.” Harry nodded.

“I’m glad. You deserved to live in peace. You deserved a family to love. You deserved a home.” Hermione said.

“And now I have that.” Harry smiled.


End file.
